Definitely one for anagram fans. I’ve not come across Shay before, but this an enjoyable solve, with a particularly fine set of surfaces. Five and a bit minutes for me.
| Across |
| 1 |
Secret information is dad’s weapon (8) |
|
PASSWORD – PA’S SWORD |
| 5 |
Breathe hard and talk quietly (4) |
|
GASP -GAS (talk) + P |
| 8 |
Latrines unsettled insides (8) |
|
ENTRAILS – anagram (‘unsettled’) of LATRINES |
| 9 |
Climate catastrophe receding (4) |
|
MOOD – DOOM backwards |
| 11 |
Start to show unwilling sluggishness (5) |
|
SLOTH – S for SHOW + LOTH (unwilling) |
| 12 |
Time to cut celery, wonky or straight (7) |
|
ERECTLY – anagram (‘wonky’) of CELERY with T for time |
| 13 |
Endless sad, tired mockery (6) |
|
SATIRE – SA[D] + TIRE[D] |
| 15 |
Respect energy and power, we hear (6) |
|
ESTEEM – E for energy + sounds like STEAM |
| 18 |
Cheese boxes have something for dessert (7) |
|
BROWNIE – BRIE with OWN inside. ‘Boxes’ being a verb. |
| 19 |
Factor in insurer underwriting show again (5) |
|
RERUN – hidden word |
| 21 |
Chooses initially to stay after work (4) |
|
OPTS – T[O] S[TAY] after OP |
| 22 |
Unmarried composer, revolutionary character (8) |
|
BACHELOR – BACH + ROLE backwards |
| 23 |
Spot cases of egregious perjury (4) |
|
ESPY – E[GREGIOU]S P[ERJUR]Y |
| 24 |
Unusual year in capital abroad (8) |
|
ATYPICAL – anagram (‘abroad’) of CAPITAL with Y |
| Down |
| 1 |
Delights Head of Planning with rental agreements (7) |
|
PLEASES – P[LANNING] + LEASES |
| 2 |
Having left river, otters returned for fight (3-2) |
|
SET-TO – OTTERS minus R for river, backwards |
| 3 |
Ageing European in fancy nightwear (10) |
|
WEATHERING – anagram (‘fancy’) of NIGHTWEAR + E |
| 4 |
Stand-in umpire eating pork pie (6) |
|
RELIEF – REF with LIE inside |
| 6 |
Missionary to lapse badly (7) |
|
APOSTLE – anagram (‘badly’) of TO LAPSE |
| 7 |
Plump, sweet guy losing heart (5) |
|
PUDGY – PUD (sweet, dessert) + G[U]Y |
| 10 |
Nicer shops unfortunately closing down (10) |
|
CENSORSHIP – anagram (‘unfortunately’) of NICER SHOPS |
| 14 |
Dance tango with pet pig, standing up (3-4) |
|
TWO-STEP – T (tango, NATO alphabet) + PET SOW backwards |
| 16 |
Mutt, male, barking longer (7) |
|
MONGREL – M + anagram (‘barking’) of LONGER. ‘Barking’ means mad, and a term for even madder is ‘Dagenham East’, which is four stops past Barking on the District Line in East London |
| 17 |
Extremely precise poet, almost purist (6) |
|
PEDANT -P[RECIS]E + DANT[E]. ‘Poet’ is nearly always Dante. |
| 18 |
Audibly expresses disapproval of alcohol (5) |
|
BOOZE – sounds like BOOS |
| 20 |
Some imbecile ranting about fossil (5) |
|
RELIC – reverse hidden word |
12 minutes, but only saved myself at the last minute from PODGY at 7dn instead of PUDGY – possibly a beartrap for solvers with speed first and foremost on their mind.
I wasn’t misled by ‘podgy’, since it’s not in my dialect, although I know the word.
That would be me😊
And me
I found this tricky, and missed my target. I didn’t see CENSORSHIP for quite a while, not immediately thinking of “closing down” in that sense.
I agree with Jack about the “podgy” bearpit, and was glad to avoid it.
FOI SLOTH
LOI WEATHERING
COD ESTEEM
TIME 7:13
I managed to avoid the PUDGY beartrap but started BROWNIE with a double ‘b’ indicating that my proofreading isn’t up to much.
Other than that a pleasant solve if a little anagram heavy for my tastes and I had to squint a bit at straight/ERECTLY being comfortably synonymous.
Started with GASP and finished with MOOD in a smidge under average time.
Thanks to curarist and Shay
Avoided traps but took a lot longer to finish than the degree of difficulty deserved, just under 30 mins. Oh well, I put this down to lack of sleep, a sluggish brain and anagram blindness.
Thanks Shay & Curarist
11.57, with help from the check function when my first crack at the CENSORSHIP anagram provided a word that was pronounceable but otherwise did not exist. All up that was pretty hard I thought, but very enjoyable. Ta to both.
Anagrams are not my thing! I was blocked in the SE corner for several minutes until I finally got ATYPICAL, that gave me SHIP at the end of 10 dn and then I was off again, but it still took me 15:08
16:13 but WOE, as I did not escape the PODGY/PUDGY bear trap. Not because I am a speed merchant – far from it, as my time shows – but simply because I DK the word and would always use Podgy as the spelling. But one lives and learns …
That apart, I found this chewy. ERECTLY is an unusual word, and the anagrams in general took some working out, but all fair and getable in the end. Except the last …
Many thanks Curarist for the blog
On edit: Out of interest, I checked Pudgy/Podgy in the dictionaries. Podgy is marked as “British informal” and Pudgy as “Mainly American”. Which probably explains my ignorance of the latter. But always good to add to one’s knowledge.
Managed to enter ESTtEMED for ESTEEMED and so mucked up APOSTLt too – so that’s a pink square for a fourth day this week. My touch typing clearly isn’t up to much. Another good puzzle in a strong crosswording week – bottom half was a lot more straightforward than the bottom today for me. CENSORSHIP, ERECTLY and ATYPICAL all taking careful consideration but is was ENTRAILS that really added time to my 16.00 solve.
Seven in the north west but anagrams are not my strength.
I always thought it was set two from needing a clear two points to win a set at squash or tennis, probably dating from real tennis. I’ve never been on a real tennis court but I did play squash on a court with wooden walls when Plessey had offices in a former stately home in Taplow.
Whilst not ‘fun’ we enjoyed this – and more so after the blog which showed it to be straightforward – though we made heavy weather of it in parts – particularly ERECTLY which stopped us for many minutes.
We, also fell for PODGY PUDGY changing only when POD failed as a pudding.
We failed to see the ‘cousin-once-removed’ pig to sow.
Missed BRIE for cheese entirely, and rather wondered if the old box brownie cameras were known as ‘Cheese boxes’ along the lines of having subjects smile… oops.
Thank you Shay and Curarist.
My anagram hat has a loose connection and blinked in and out of life – it instantly produced WEATHERING, ENTRAILS, APOSTLE, ATYPICAL and MONGREL but stubbornly remained blank for ERECTLY and CENSORSHIP. Those slowed me down, as did LTI MOOD and PUDGY. “Sweet” for “pud” isn’t in my dialect (as Kevin would say) but it wasn’t hard to choose between pud and pod for “sweet”. Along the way I also had to resist my first thought “Porgy” (well, he’s a sweet guy).
All done in a precise 09:00 for a Decent Day. Many thanks to Shay for an excellent puzzle and to Curarist.
I found this tough, taking a way over average 31 minutes to complete. Guessing and biffing necessary, which in retrospect seems to indicate some lethargic thinking on my part.
Excellent puzzle with some great surfaces, though ERECTLY really ought not to be a word. LOI PUDGY. Pleased to complete in 11:11.
Stared at this for ten minutes, nothing. Then saw RERUN, and eventually all went in, LOI PEDANT. But NHO PUDGY, it’s always been PODGY so sat at Curarist’s footstool to see how to parse (pod, like acorn, = fruit = sweet?) and oh! it’s PUDGY. Humph. Turn to Collins, and ah! variant US spelling. Humph again. Don’t think this is right in a UK crossword.
Sorry to be grumpy but ’twas with such a feeling of elation and triumph that I finished what appeared to be a difficult one that it’s really annoying to be kyboshed by a dubious variant US spelling.
“Pudgy” is commonly used in English English and there is absolutely nothing wrong with using it in a UK crossword.
My Shorter Oxford lists both “podgy” and “pudgy”; says they are “parallel forms”; and gives an earlier date for “pudgy” (1808) than for “podgy” (1833). Chambers also gives them as straight alternatives (“podgy or pudgy”).
If you enter “pudgy” into the search function of The Times you get 851 results of recent usage by English journalists (sample – “the commentary and expertise has been superlative, particularly from Steve Davis, Ken Doherty and that pudgy, smirking troublemaker Shaun Murphy” – Rod Liddle on 11 May).
OK, concede defeat, licking wounds … thank you, Templar, for doing all that spadework.
I share your pain! I think the issue is that because I always say Podgy, whenever I read the 5 letters P.U.D.G.Y -in the Times or anywhere else – my brain says “ah yes, the word is podgy”, it being a well-established fact that most reading after the very beginning stages is by sampling the letters and extrapolating/guessing the word. So it is more than likely I have indeed seen/read the spelling Pudgy without ever registering that it even exists.
An interesting idea! Thank you for your kind sympathy.
PODGY. Bah humbug! 8,15 WOE. Thanks Shay and Curarist.
Good puzzle I thought- blowing away the cobwebs after a good few in the George (venue of the meet-up I understand) and then the Oval on a miserably dank ultimately wet evening last night.
12:25 for me which was a tad disappointing as NW corner were all write ins in a minute or so. Was making good progress with rest of it and dreaming of PB territory and then noticed laptop needed urgent power. Paused the game and then once plugged back in seemed to lose all rhythm. Anyone else find that wavelength can be a bit of a rhythm thing?
I too managed PUDGY – a lesson in taking the extra 20 seconds in actually parsing the thing.
LOI was MOOD for me.
Cheers to Curarist for the blog.
10:18
Slow with the ENTRAILS and CENSORSHIP anagrams even with the majority of the checkers in place. Avoided the PODGY/PUDGY trap. About par for the course given current Quitch of 112.
Thanks C and Shay
I see I am not alone in having joined the PODGY club, with a huge question mark at the time;14 minutes in all.
I wasn’t rushing and assumed POD which has several meanings might stretch to Sweet which has several meanings.
PUDGY clearly fits but did not occur to me.
I also nearly went with ELECTRY but I did take time to sort that one out.
I thought the puzzle was fine overall.
David
I also couldn’t work out how why the seemingly simple task of fitting R, C and L into E_E_T_Y was such a struggle.
Too tough for me, gave up with 6 left, and had to reveal 3 of them to get enough crossers for the rest. Ok with 12a, if you stand up straight you stand erectly, but I can’t see censor = close down, and a trawl of the dictionaries agrees. Surely you can only close down something which has been open, and if its been open it is too late to censor it.
If you close down dissent, you could be accused of censorship.
From ENTRAILS to MOOD in 18 minutes, which is very fast for me and a day out of the SCC. Very pleased to see CENSORSHIP quickly, as I’m not sure I’d have got it from the definition (closing down). Also happy to have arrived successfully at PUDGY, albeit via brief stops on the way at PigGy and PoDGY.
Overall, a successful very enjoyable QC.
Many thanks to Curarist and Shay.
👏👏👏
Website not working for anyone else? Keep getting stuck in a loop of being asked to log in then it tells me I am logged in but when I try to play a puzzle it goes back to asking me to subscribe or log in.
Clearing your browser’s cache and site data might fix the problem. The puzzles go haywire when the browser won’t let them store any more data.
Just over six minutes, so a minute over target, which suggests it’s a tricky one. I also considered podgy, but thankfully I looked at the clue again.
It’s funny how the brain works. I tried to get censorship but couldn’t see the anagram. A minute later whilst solving another clue it suddenly came to me from nowhere.
It seems the brain can multitask even without us knowing it.
Yes, our homunculus (researcher) in the brain keeps on trying to find the solution to all clues left unsolved, until they are all done.
That’s why, for example, if I stall on three clues and go off and do something else, when I return to the QC, I can write those three in, with minimal effort.
The only anagram that gave me any trouble was CENSORSHIP. I needed all the checkers for that one. My solve was steady with everything parsed although my last two PUDGY and MOOD extended my solving time by a good minute. Thanks Curarist. 8:44
Good 15 enjoyable minutes with lots learned along the way. When I saw BROWNIE I too thought of the old box camera and the inevitable “cheese” to provoke a smile, so I missed the Brie (one of my favourite cheeses). My only mistake was EPPE for ESPY at 23a, so dnf for me. But I loved the wordplay with TWO STEP and with RELIEF, with pork pie or porky for LIE making it my cod. I did think clueing for ERECTLY (odd word) was a bit clunky, but I suppose you can stand erectly and be wonky at the same time – can you? Thanks Shay and Curarist.
Wonky is the anagrind.
Of course! Thank you.
13.51 With three minutes spent on PUDGY and MOOD at the end. Still my quickest week ever (46.20) despite what feels like a poor finish. Thanks Curarist and Shay.
On reflection, this all seemed straightforward enough, especially as it came from the Shay stable, but it proved surprisingly hard going in places. The crossing Erectly and Censorship pushed me out to 25mins, and then an alpha-trawl for loi Mood (not in the best, by that stage) added insult to injury. CoD to Brownie for the parsing, a nose ahead of Relief. Invariant
I make it a rule that I don’t enter anything until I have parsed it. Must have spent 2 minutes trying to think why sweet = pod until the penny dropped. D’oh!
Enjoyed the puzzle though felt it was towards the difficult end of QC territory.
Thanks Shay and Curarist
This was a gentler QC by Shay. I thought bard was more common in crosswords for poet than individual poets like Dante or Keats etc. Also, I needed all the checkers to figure out Weathering and Censorship because of the definitions used that didn’t quite click.
12:54. Great puzzle with some fabulous clueing. Agree that erectly was a bit stiff for a QC 😉
Ta Curarist and Shay
Shades of Frankie Howard…
Frankie Howerd…
😉
I enjoyed that, coming in slightly below my average at 13:31. Got stuck at the end on ATYPICAL and CENSORSHIP and had to write both of them down, which cost me at least a couple of minutes.
Thank you for the blog!
Very pleased to finish this tricky puzzle, but with LOI PoDGY, oh dear.
I was slow in solving all the anagrams today, in fact, generally slow in NE.
Liked BOOZE, TWO STEP, GASP, PASSWORD, BROWNIE and COD PEDANT.
Many thanks, Curarist
21 mins. Took a time to see all the new anagram indicators but once dialled in, all was OK. LOI Doom. Thanks Shay and Curarist
Fortunately, we hardly ever use podgy here in the US, so it was not an option. What gave me difficulty was censorship, which was not what I was expecting from the literal.
Time: 9:03
I’m a bit woozy this morning, with the anagrammer gears grinding slowly, but still found this a pleasing solve, taking 12:06 with a bit of thought over a few. On review I see so many excellently smooth clues that it’s hard to pick a favorite. SET-TO, BACHELOR, and RELIC especially pleased me.
Thank goodness it wasn’t PoDGY, as it’s not in my dialect. PUDGY always makes me think of McCabe and Mrs. Miller.
Thanks to Shay and Curarist.
18:10
Struggled with the acrosses on first pass but the downs proved much more friendly and everything fell into place with the checkers. LOI ERECTLY.
Being a huge fan of a good pud any alternative to PUDGY never occurred to me.
11:40. Everything came out happily in the end.
27 mins, very slow but at least no pink squares. LOI CENSORSHIP. Found it very difficult all round.
Train solve (thanks to blogger who advised about SeatFrog for cheap first class upgrade).
20 mins…
Pretty straight forward I thought, and a nice end to the week. I wasted a few minutes on 12ac “Erectly”, writing out the various combinations before the inevitable PDM, but the rest went in fairly smoothly.
FOI – 2dn “Set To”
LOI – 12ac “Erectly”
COD – 18ac “Brownie”
Thanks as usual!
At the risk of being a 17d.
Is unmarried a noun?
Is straight an adverb?
J
Unmarried and bachelor are both adjectives. Think “Bachelor Boy” by Cliff Richard
Go straight to jail – do not pass go.
13.26 all parsed except rerun, biffed, did not see. Thanks, Shay and Curarist.
Im an anagram fan, so up my street, three quarters done after 5 mins, went outside for smoke, returned and finished in another 5 min, good for me, especially with nicotine break
I initially went for PODGY as others did, but fortunately took the trouble to properly parse it and PUDGY was inserted. I found this to be the toughest of the week, and I knew fairly early on my ten minute target was not to be achieved. In the end I made it in 14.37, and that included finishing the final five clues fairly rapidly.
My total time for the week was 57.33, giving me a daily average of 11.31. A tough week generally then with only one sub ten minute target achieved.
12:56 (Llewelyn ap Gruffudd reconquers Eastern Gwynedd)
Solved in two sessions, with a four hour drive in the middle.
LOI was CENSORSHIP, which required pencil and paper to solve the anagram.
Thanks Curarist and Shay
A good puzzle with some clever clues. I did most of it quickly but, as usual for me, got hung up on a few at the end: ERECTLY (👎🏻), PUDGY, and my LOI MOOD.
A little over 20 mins to the finish but enjoyable.
Thanks to Shay and Curarist.
I definitely didn’t have my anagram hat on and had to write the anagrist out for quite a few of them. I was also quite slow but didn’t mind because, as Curarist says, the surfaces were top-drawer. I thought this was a very funny crossword, and there were many ticks along the way, so I will just give a mention to some that made me chuckle – ENTRAILS and WEATHERING in particular. No, it’s too difficult to ration them – the fighting otters really made me laugh, as did the lapsing missionary and the ranting imbecile!
16:00 FOI Password LOI Esteem COD Atypical, plus all the above!
Many thanks Shay and Curarist
Started off in Costa this afternoon, as usual, but had to cut short to run errands. Started so well with all the top half+ going straight in. However back home found the remainder very slow. Wasn’t convinced 12a Erectly could be right but couldn’t see any alternative. Had 5a as Pant and so needed to revisit and read the clue more closely to get the starter for 7d P. Some, for me, unusual devices employed in the clues but figured them out so learned something new.
FOI 1a Password
LOI 23a Espy
COD 22a Bachelor
Overall, a nice puzzle!
Left-hand side went in with barely a pause, then slowed right down for the RH side, with some slightly tricky anagrams and definitions – CENSORSHIP, for which I needed the crossers, ERECTLY and MOOD. My first thought was PODGY, but since it didn’t parse, it had to be PUDGY. Liked BROWNIE and MONGREL.
Nightmare end to an awful week.
22 minute DNF as I put PODGY for 7dn. A bad error as it clearly didn’t parse (so why did you leave it in Gary?????).
Not that anyone will be interested, but here’s my week:
M – 9 mins
Tu – 53 min DNF
W – 26 mins
Th – 17 mins
F – 22 min DNF
137 mins, only 2 escapes from SCC and 2 DNFs.
To compound the misery, I spent 75 mins on 15 x 15 and solved just 14! I’m banging my head against a brick wall here. No matter how hard I try, I do not have the ability for this.
Back for more suffering next week.
Another Mr Podgy here. But as I couldn’t parse it the DNF was deserved.
Nice puzzle but quite a hard one taking 44 minutes.
Liked 17d PEDANT which describes me nicely when it comes to grammar
Thanks Shay and Curarist. I liked your heading.