Parksolve time = 33:24. Solid effort on the track and on the grid.
Our assignment for today was set by the lesser-spotted Lupa, making what I believe to be only his or her sixth appearance.
Can’t see many grounds for complaint (famous last words). There are no terribly obscure words, and all but four answers are clued by a single-word definition at the start or the end of the clue. Along with three two-word definitions and one three-word definition.
So you just need to know which end of the clue to look at. And as it turns out it’s the back end for most of the across clues and the front end for all but one of the down clues. And just like that you’ve turned a Quick Cryptic into a very concise Concise. Simple innit!
Well, maybe not. This is the sort of pattern that only reveals itself when you sit down to blog the thing and is of little benefit whilst solving. Still I thought it was mildly interesting and possibly instructive.
Anyway, on with the show. How did you go with it and what did I miss? Please let us know in the comments.
| Across | |
| 1 | Small change to sponsor senior primate (10) |
| SILVERBACK – SILVER (small change) + BACK (sponsor)
The silverback is the big kahuna of gorilladom. |
|
| 8 | Comfort individual following swindle (7) |
| CONSOLE – SOLE (individual) following CON (swindle) | |
| 9 | Introduction to reading not in English course (5) |
| ROUTE – R (introduction to Reading) + OUT (not in) + E (English) | |
| 10 | Secretaries initially type material (4) |
| SILK – S (Secretaries initially) + ILK (type) | |
| 11 | Toughest ordeal after unfinished beer (8) |
| STOUTEST – TEST (ordeal) after STOUt [unfinished stout (beer)] | |
| 13 | American with that female guide (5) |
| USHER – US (American) + HER (that female) | |
| 14 | Concluded leaderless, relieved (5) |
| EASED – |
|
| 16 | Rip off rascal (8) |
| TEARAWAY – TEAR (rip) + AWAY (off) | |
| 17 | Strong company (4) |
| FIRM – Double definition | |
| 20 | Medical officer returning healthy figure (5) |
| MOTIF – MO (medical officer) + TIF [FIT (healthy) “returning”] | |
| 21 | Purpose men gain in play (7) |
| MEANING – (MEN GAIN)* Our first anagram for the day… |
|
| 22 | Cleric upset with tone online (10) |
| ELECTRONIC – (CLERIC + TONE)* …followed by our second. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Destroys bags (5) |
| SACKS – Double definition | |
| 2 | Singletons in one suit lacking support of others? (6,6) |
| LONELY HEARTS – HEARTS (one suit) are LONELY (lacking support of others?)
I didn’t really know this sense of the word (informal: “a person who is not married or in a long-term relationship”) but it’s not exactly a stretch. |
|
| 3 | Love god in bedrooms on a regular basis (4) |
| EROS – Alternate letters of bEdRoOmS
He features in some of the more entertaining passages of Stephen Fry’s Mythos. |
|
| 4 | Sheepish noises turned tables (6) |
| BLEATS – (TABLES)* | |
| 5 | Celebrated scoundrel about to stir (8) |
| CAROUSED – CAD (scoundrel) “about” ROUSE (to stir) | |
| 6 | Inept suitors misrepresented belief (12) |
| SUPERSTITION – (INEPT SUITORS)* | |
| 7 | Cuddled favourite bear (6) |
| PETTED – PET (favourite) + TED (bear) | |
| 12 | Shocking fraud led to change (8) |
| DREADFUL – (FRAUD LED)* | |
| 13 | Period of activity when I’m awake? (6) |
| UPTIME – TIME when I’m UP (awake)
The period of time during which a system is working and available. Famously “five nines” in the world that I inhabit (mainframe computing) where for many years the minimum expectation has been 99.999% uptime. |
|
| 15 | Pave grass over with waterproof coat (6) |
| TARMAC – TAR[RAT (grass) reversed (over)] + MAC (waterproof coat)
If you’re confused by rat=grass, think of ratting someone out, grassing someone up or dobbing someone in. In the noun sense, there’s always a “grass” or a “rat” that ruins things for the bad guys. |
|
| 18 | Mysterious wise men caught (5) |
| MAGIC – MAGI (wise men) + C (caught) | |
| 19 | Reasonable cost of travel announced (4) |
| FAIR – Homophone (announced) of FARE (cost of travel) | |
I rashly biffed ENDED at 14a, and it wasn’t until I got SUPERSTITION that I corrected it. A MER at 16ac; I thought (it’s not in my dialect) that a TEARAWAY was a wild, unruly person, not a rascal; and ODE and Collins back me up. 6:30.
Fair point, I admit to not giving it much thought at the time. But to me they both have a broad enough definition to allow for a bit of overlap.
Google’s Oxford Languages dictionary has larrikin as a synonym for tearaway, which (for an Australian at least) is enough to get the setter off the hook.
16 minutes completes my week of 4 out of 6 targets missed and nothing under 10 (my old target before I upped it to 15). Last week I had 5 out of 6 under 10 with no targets missed.
In my book (and the usual dictionaries) TARMAC is not paving. I’m also doubtful about ‘online / ELECTRONIC’ as synonyms.
Actually I just realised I had an error at 1ac so this was a DNF. If I’d thought of ‘change / SILVER’ I’d have put SILVERBACK although I’d have struggled with the definition as I thought it was a fish. As it was, I trusted to wordplay as I saw it and wrote SALTERBACK.
Tarmac I wondered about, but I think it’s hard to argue with online = electronic. It’s the reason for so many things in the internet world having an “e-” prefix.
Yes, I’d thought of that but the doubts persisted, however on further reflection I can think of several examples that pass the substitution test. I often find myself reminding other contributors that one example is good enough so I should really learn to follow my own advice!
Also struggle re pave and TARMAC : (
Himself tells me ELECTRONIC transfer of funds = online transfer.
I also toyed briefly with the not previously heard of SALTERBACK. Silver as small change? Well, I guess, but that’s coppers to me.
12:30 with some challenging clueing but all fair methinks. Didn’t think twice about Lonely Hearts being singletons; Beatles and newspaper columns came to mind.
Great blog G and thanks Lupa for a puzzle where (@Galspray a bit of an oink theme going on…?) you weren’t completely hiding your wolverine bite beneath a sheepish deception…
14:03 for the solve. Taken out past ten minutes by EASED, STOUTEST and CAROUSED.
Thanks to Galspray for the blog and to Lupa for an approachable puzzle. BLEATS was my fave today.
Edit: parksolve coming in at 36:58 – first sub23 run in almost a year. On reflection, today’s puzzle had more sticky clues than I thought on completing.
I didn’t find this easy at all and had similar reservations about some of the definitions as others. ELECTRONIC was one mer but Galspray’s explanation fits to my mind. TARMAC was another but let it slide.
Couldn’t get ‘condone’ out of my head for CONSOLE, thinking ‘individual’ was ‘one’. Saw SILVERBACK as soon as sponsor/back came to me. I also thought 14a was going to be ‘ended’ but couldn’t parse it, waited until SUPERSTITION gave me the right answer. Secretaries in the clue for 10a put ‘PAs’ into my head but couldn’t parse ‘Past’ for material. LONELY HEARTS and SACKS gave me SILK. Bit of a mer for toughest/stoutest, but after looking up ‘stout’ found ‘tough’ meaning strong and thick.
Nice puzzle. Thanks G and setter.
Spent some time trying to think of obscure church dignitaries at 1a before the penny dropped with what ‘sponsor’ was doing in the clue. Other than that a fairly standard solve helped by a number of well positioned anagrams.
No problem with the ELECTRONIC/online link as they seem to me to be completely synonymous these days.
Started with CONSOLE and finished with EASED in 7.46 with COD to LONELY HEARTS.
Thanks to Galspray for the blog and Lupa for the enjoyable puzzle.
Six, although I could see a couple of anagrams I couldn’t get my brain into gear.
Five nines came to my attention from the telecoms world rather than mainframes.
Online / electronic
Online – up and running
Electronic – powered by electricity
I can think of two reasons why it’s e-commerce and not i-commerce. The first being e-commerce scans better and the second being that Apple registered practically everything i-whatever.
Can’t agree with that – powered by electricity is electric. Electronic requires some control of the individual electrons by the use of transistors etc.
The electric motor was invented in 1821, and was certainly electric. The electron was not discovered until 1897. The first electronic device (a diode which allows electrons to flow in one direction, but not the other) was in 1904.
email is short for electronic mail and obviously it is mail delivered online.
as jackkt stated you only need 1 example to fit to be valid
Online is the continuous process of being connected. Electronic does not have any dependancy on the time line.
If you send me an email you will be online when you send the mail by electronic means but I won’t get it until I am online (and logged into my email account).
Online is connectivity at layers one to four of the ISO seven layer model.
Email is an application that resides in layers five to seven.
You can study electronics.
You can’t study the subject of online, you can of course study the subject of communications technology over the internet whilst online.
Too much time on my hands.
Excellent points Nutshell and you’ve correctly identified that electronic is not universally a synonym for online.
However (you could tell there was a however coming couldn’t you?) that’s not the test that’s applied in these puzzles. It’s sufficient for there to be a context in which the two words can be (and are) used interchangeably.
I think online / electronic passes that test quite comfortably.
I think its the same as definition by example, all Ferraris are cars, not all cars are Ferraris. All online activity is electronic, not all electronic activity is online. They are not synonymous, one is a subset of the other.
14 mins but with one careless pink square, blamed in a phone solve.
LOI TEARAWAY was the cause of at least 5 mins head scratching.
Very close to a rare day out of the SCC at 20.11.
Would have made it if it wasn’t for looking at 1a with the E and B crossers and seeing that Canterbury would fit, and he’s definitely a senior primate. Having typed it in tried desperately to parse but in the end deleted it.
Thanks Galspray for blog, especially the parsing of tarmac, must remember rat is yet another option for grass.
COD to Eros for the surface, thanks Lupa
I share the MERs listed by early posters but despite a little looseness in parts, this was an enjoyable puzzle with some nice clues. A reasonable QC, I thought (but not easy). I wasted time by biffing condone for 8a but came to my senses when I looked at all my parsing.
I avoided the SCC by the skin of my teeth (I now see that I just pipped Roundabout Here).
Thanks to Lupa and Galspray.
A friendly puzzle which I was racing through until I became another who originally had “ended” in for EASED at 14A, and that held me up until I finally conceded that not only did it make the long 6D anagram impossible but I couldn’t find a plausible parsing for it anyway. So a revisit, and ENDED led to the rapid emergence of SUPERSTITION and an 11:05 solve which could have, should have been rather faster.
Many thanks Galspray for the blog
34:12 for me today which is 25 minutes faster than yesterday despite the QSnitch being higher at 105 vs 100 on Friday.
Nice puzzle from Lupa even if one or two definitions required a bit of a stretch; but we expect that in crosswordland.
COD to STOUTEST for having to take out the T and then put it back in again.
Thanks Galspray for your helpful observations.
Will be expecting 9mins on Monday 😜
Woohoo!
Took ages but go there in the end. LOI UPTIME, unfamiliar so had to biff. POI TEARAWAY. Also relatively slow in NE in a dim sort of way, despite solving SUPERSTITION early on. Struggled with CAROUSED, EASED and STOUTEST. Yes, agree tarmacking is not paving. Later: though, come to think of it, we do talk about unpaved roads.
Liked SILVERBACK, PDM (had to rub out Archbishop fairly quickly), MAGIC, and EROS.
Thanks vm, Galspray.
35 mins…
I thought this was on the more difficult side, and I hardly got anything on the first pass. My last few in: 13dn “Uptime”, 20ac “Motif” and 22ac “Electronic” took a good chunk of 10 mins. Didn’t care too much for the definition of “online” which I think has brought out a few “mehs” above.
However, as it is a Saturday, I will take the satisfaction of a completion.
FOI – 9ac “Route”
LOI – 13dn “Uptime”
COD – 16ac “Tearaway” – simple, but effective.
Thanks as usual!
Finished in 15:44, first time I’ve managed to do one of these without spamming the check button to cheat. Don’t know carouse, didn’t understand reasoning for tarmac until reading.
SACKS was FOI followed by EROS and BLEATS, then when the B indicated BACK for sponsor, the hitherto unseen primate emerged from the mist. Loved that film with Sigourney Weaver! A little while later TEARAWAY completed the job. 8:18. Thanks Lupa and Galspray.
13.42 Definitely one of our better times – close to our PB?
No particular holdups. The plethora of anagrams was much in our favour.
ELECTRONIC -Himself assures me that an electronic transfer is an online transfer.
I tend to avoid understanding all things IT and electrical. I use them, slightly fear and am in awe of them and am delighted to regard them as some sort magic – a sensation that, as a child, gave me much pleasure so why stop that moment now. : )
7.31 with a typo
Didn’t find this the easiest but all fair and no major hold ups.
Thanks all
10:54 BUT having given up on TEARAWAY which went in as TRABADAL, and COURSED in as CAROUSEL as NHO ‘carouse’ in the sense of ‘celebrate’.
Took too long over SACKS, which should have gone in immediately. Similarly DREADFUL, which was one of those tricky [potential anagrind][fodder][potential anagrind] clues, which far too often cause me to stick to the wrong word as the anagrind and consequently the wrong word as the definition. I will henceforth call these ‘double anagrind’ clues in the hope of spotting them more quickly in future.
18d had me convinced I was looking for a homophone with ‘caught’. My long-running fight with ‘caught’ rages on.
‘Online’ = ELECTRONIC seemed a bit of a stretch as a definition.
Confused about figure = MOTIF. Belief = SUPERSTITION seems okay if a little loose.
Think Rolls Royce’s Spirit of Ecstasy which is both a motif (distinctive design) and a figure.
Or, in music, a distinctive and repeated sequence of notes could equally well be called a motif or a figure.
And similarly in visual design with a repeated flower or geometric symbol.
Quite – far more than the one example that Jackkt requires. (Nice test Jackkt – henceforth dubbed “if the Jackkt fits ….)
Excellent crossword – very much appreciated thanks. Went through slowly but no real problems with either definitions or parsing. Only real hold up was ages spent trying to work out the anagram of scoundrel (my suspicion confirmed by all four crossers being present in it). I hadn’t hitherto realised the requirement to be able to count up to nine for crossword solving – doh!
Re the “mildly interesting and possibly instructive”, such comments are far more than that, they are the mustard on the steak and chips, the cherry on the cake, I could go on. Certainly speaking for myself the blogger’s asides and comments make them appreciated as much as the setters – more than some (no names mentioned).
12:47
LOI TEARAWAY.
Slow to see SILVERBACK. I saw that ARCHBISHOP had the right number of letters, and wasted time trying to parse it, to no avail.
Thanks Galspray and Lupa
I thought this was a ‘fair’ challenge, which I made a mess of by writing in Fare for 19d despite being well aware of the difference. Of course, both R and E had to be included in the anagrist for loi 22ac. . . It took me a good few frustrating minutes to spot my error, by which time I had drifted past 25mins. CoD to 9ac, Route, for the surface. Invariant
PS I think Lupa our only female setter ?
I thought Alex is also female – known as Carpathian over at The Guardian. Don’t quote me on that though
Correct:
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2021/jun/07/crossword-blog-meet-the-setter-carpathian-victoria-godfrey
I was fairly sure that Lupa is a chap, so had a little internet trawl! He’s Julian Morgan who also sets O Tempora crosswords and has his own puzzle site too. So, still no female setters apart from Alex, as far as I’m aware 🤨
It’s interesting though – setting does seem to be more of a boy’s game, as does solving to a greater degree. Quite a few women here, it’s true, but not so many on the 15×15 blog as far as I can see.
My mistake. 👍
Nothing to worry about 😊
Insensitive male interrupts crucial point (4) 😄
I was being a bit numb in the brain department this evening, but MrB was right on the ball! Not so insensitive, either of you 😊
Finished in 40 minutes today, a very enjoyable puzzle. Really liked TEARAWAY and initially thought it was a double definition clue, but when I thought of TEAR for rip, it fell into place, and gave me a lot of satisfaction. Thank you for the blog 😁
My student is back from his road trip to New Orleans, so I used this one as a teaching puzzle. If I had done it myself, I would have probably taken 7-8 minutes.
I had an interesting Ninja Turtle, as John Devore names all his speakers after great apes:
https://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/306devore/index.html
Someone in my circle used to own a pair, so I have actually heard them.
Apart from being stuck with the Caroused Silverback, this was a fine QC and the blog as well. Thanks
DNF
Small change sponsor. Put Salterback. Should have paid more attention to the definition because it’s obvious in hindsight. Otherwise straightforward though struggled with LOI CAROUSED. Again, see it now but was looking at the wrong meaning of to stir.
Going through it didn’t feel quite as fast as our ultimate 10:33 so a decent challenge. Any concerns over pave / tarmac were lost in the late appreciation of ‘Ah, that sort of grass’. Found ELECTRONIC surprisingly difficult to see before we had most, if not all, of the checkers but STOUTEST was our LOI. Thanks, Galspray and Lupa.
9:41
Leisurely solve with the right side harder than the left, I felt. SUPERSTITION was required to break open the resistance, but needed four of the six checkers to see it.
Thanks Galspray and Lupa
Biffed EASED, CAROUSED and UPTIME and eventually recalled SILVERBACK. Took a rather sluggish 27:25. Good job it’s a lovely day lounging in the garden.
12:22. LOI TEARAWAY which looked daunting with its three A crossers, but fell nicely into place. I liked UPTIME. Thanks Galspray and Lupa
I struggled to a finish in 17:58, though things started well for me with the sly SILVERBACK. Having a dull morning after a very exhausting yesterday. “Online” for ELECTRONIC seemed weird to me but the logic is there. EROS is terribly cute! PET TED too. I was fooled into interpreting “caught” as a homophone indicator, and didn’t think of MAGIC for “mysterious”, it’s a pretty slantwise definition. For some reason SUPERSTITION for “belief” wouldn’t come until all the crossers were in. Maybe I should go back to bed. (It does reassure me to be joined by Kevin in rashly, wrongly biffing ENDED.)
I don’t quite understand the problem with TARMAC. Can someone explain to me why it’s not paving? Concrete is paving, asphalt is paving, even gravel is arguably paving, why not tarmac? Or is it that you can’t use it as a verb? To pave, to asphalt, hmmm, to concrete, double hmmmm. To tarmac? I like the clue in spite of hmmming.
Thanks to Lupa and Galspray.
I always think of paving as laying paving slabs or bricks, rather than stones, gravel or tarmac.
Perhaps another unsuspected Americanism of mine then. Thanks.
I enjoyed this – lots of very neat and witty surfaces and a few quite easy ones. But then – of course – I got a bit stuck, with a few not-so-easy ones, and I spent 1:15 alone on my LOI. Totally breeze-blocked!
I was amused by LONELY HEARTS being next to EROS – he obviously isn’t on target today.
It says something about inflation that silver is now equated to small change. When I was a child, I loved a half crown- that really felt like you’d got some weight in your pocket! I feel much the same about £2 coins these days (if I ever see one!). I’m not sure there’s not much you can do with a 5p piece nowadays.
Ticks next to TEARAWAY, MOTIF and DREADFUL, and SUPERSTITION gets Anagram of the Day, possibly the week.
12:45 FOI Console LOI Caroused COD Eros
Many thanks Lupa and Galspray
DNF SALTERBACK (was thinking obscure senior cleric?) although SILVERBACK is a lot more obvious 😆 Struggled with ROUTE, wanting it to be a foreign river (Rhine, Rhone) before I biffed then parsed the rather more obvious answer. Same MERs as others re: pave/TARMAC. COD LONELY HEARTS, but I also liked CAROUSED. Many thanks Lupa and galspray.
10.49 A similar experience to Kevin, only slower. I biffed ENDED and corrected it after POI SUPERSTITION. MER at TEARAWAY for rascal. Thanks galspray and Lupa.
15:13. Another who plumped for SALTERBACK till the real gorilla’s name was remembered. SILK, ROUTE, and LONELY HEARTS were favourites.
I enjoyed that but found it quite tricky in places, especially my LOI of TEARAWAY with its infuriatingly unhelpful checking letters. All done in 16:02.
Thank you for the blog!
Found this gentle – all done in 7:24 but alas wont count as had a pink square for a fat finger.
Another one who thought about SALTERBACK (sounds like it might be a cleric) and also CANTERBURY (which is at least a thing) before remembering the gorilla. 17:00 exactly.
8.15.
Not CONDONE then. I knew it wasn’t right but didn’t go back to bottom it out because I am lazy and drinking whisky looking out over Jura. Rats. 06:45 but WOE. Thanks Lupa and Gallers.
I looked at this on my phone today, revealing each clue in turn from the blog and seeing if I could get the answer (I’m not an online subscriber).
Here is why I will never be any good at this. I read 1ac as S (for ‘small’) and then an anagram (‘change’) of ‘to sponsor’.
Why can’t I get this? What am I missing?
Jeez Gary you sound like me talking about my golf game!
But yes there’s a knack to knowing when to abandon a certain plan of attack when solving. Just comes with experience I think.
Mind you, if you’re attempting to solve clues without any previously-inserted checking letters you’re increasing the difficulty by orders of magnitude, so don’t be too hard on yourself.
Aside from that all I can say is to persevere (if you enjoy these things). There are certain clue devices that will trip you up the first twenty times you encounter them, but just wait for that twenty-first time!
(Brings to mind my all-time favourite sporting quote, from Vitas Gerulaitis when he defeated Jimmy Connors after sixteen successive losses. “And let that be a lesson to you all. No-one beats Vitas Gerulaitis seventeen times in a row”).
Thanks galspray. I love the quote!