No bones about it – I found this on the harder side though maybe it was just me.
Not off to a good start as both 1a and 1b elicited the usual blank response with the rather oblique definition for 1a not helping. Nothing much came until I started to work up from the bottom of the grid and even then 11d and 22a in the SW corner were slow to come. The definition for 7d was another one which was hard to nail down and it was my LOI.
Difficult enough to feel satisfied after finally getting there. All finished in 16:33.
Thanks to Hurley
Definitions underlined in bold. Deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
| 1 | Militias react badly, hunting for goods? (13) |
| MATERIALISTIC – Anagram (‘badly’) of MILITIAS REACT
Definition on the cryptic side, tough anagram – not exactly a confidence builder at the start! |
|
| 8 | Abnormal feature of Montserrat I cited (7) |
| ERRATIC -Hidden (‘feature of’) MER at ERRATIC for ‘abnormal’. To me (and more importantly the dictionaries) ERRATIC means changing, inconsistent or unpredictable, which isn’t necessarily implied by ‘abnormal’. For what it’s worth though, abnormal is listed as a synonym for erratic (and vice versa) in the Chambers Thesaurus. |
|
| 9 | Mock afternoon meals, old-time ultimately (5) |
| TEASE – TEAS (‘afternoon meals’) |
|
| 10 | Evil one’s betrayer, we hear, one with something to show (12) |
| DEMONSTRATOR – DEMONS (‘Evil one’s’) then aural wordplay (‘we hear’) of TRAITOR (‘betrayer’)
The TRAITOR homophone here seems pretty uncontroversial, but then again, maybe not… |
|
| 12 | Strongly criticise extremely abject course taken (6) |
| ATTACK – A |
|
| 14 | Referring to a child’s motive (6) |
| REASON – RE (‘Referring to’) A (‘a’) SON (‘child’) | |
| 17 | In the end, sad article suggests couple lose hope (7) |
| DESPAIR – |
|
| 19 | Proletariat held back, somewhat annoyed (5) |
| IRATE – Reverse hidden (‘held back, somewhat’) in The answer (and clue type) looks familiar. See last Saturday’s QC. |
|
| 20 | Law that’s no longer strictly accurate (5) |
| EXACT – A ‘Law that’s no longer’ would be an EX ACT | |
| 21 | New red van in front of a gallery (7) |
| VERANDA – Anagram (‘New’) of RED VAN then (‘in front of’) A (‘a’)
A variant spelling of the (to me) more familiar VERANDAH. Of the standard references, Chambers is the only one to specifically mention the word ‘gallery’ in the definition. |
|
| 22 | Note race error (8) |
| MISPRINT – MI (‘Note’) SPRINT (‘race’) | |
| 23 | Genuine regret comes after time (4) |
| TRUE – RUE (‘regret’) following (‘comes after’) T (‘time’) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Not inclined to anger this person, European king (4) |
| MEEK – ME (‘this person’) E (‘European’) K (‘king’)
I had the def and wordplay the wrong way around on first reading the clue. Again, not the most obvious of definitions. |
|
| 2 | Sorry to ignore outsiders in shelter in downpour (7) |
| TORRENT – |
|
| 3 | Proportion of allowance cut short (5) |
| RATIO – RATIO |
|
| 4 | Charge account, copper’s, initially exceeded (6) |
| ACCUSE – AC (‘account’) CUS (‘copper’s’) E |
|
| 5 | Go-between’s re-entry, aim I’d worked on (12) |
| INTERMEDIARY – Anagram (‘worked on’) of RE ENTRY AIM ID | |
| 6 | Extra item to some extent characteristic (5) |
| TRAIT – Hidden (‘to some extent’) in ‘ |
|
| 7 | Following authorisations, beer event with nothing left at finish? (9,4) |
| CLEARANCE SALE – After (‘Following’) CLEARANCES (‘authorisations’) ALE (‘beer’)
As in security CLEARANCES. |
|
| 11 | Pleasant wish, ready-made? Not entirely, resort needed (8) |
| DAYDREAM – Partial anagram (‘Not entirely, resort needed’) of READY MAD ‘Resort’ as in “re-sort”. My thoughts weren’t so pleasant as I was wrestling with this not very difficult anagram. |
|
| 13 | Talk about headgear supplier (7) |
| CHATTER – C (‘about’) HATTER (‘headgear supplier’)
C (or can be CA) for “circa” / ‘about’. |
|
| 15 | Metal tool earns no praise at first in new arrangement (7) |
| SPANNER – Anagram (‘in new arrangement’) of EARNS and N I was glad to see that “spanner” wasn’t a definition for the answer BRIDGE. I took ‘Metal’ to be “made of metal”(Collins does mention a ‘metal’ and has “a steel hand tool…” as the def) rather than “used in working with metal”. Either works, though I imagine there could be non-metal spanners, or spanners could be used in working with materials other than metal. Over to you handymen / handywomen… |
|
| 16 | Determined foolish talk must change finally (6) |
| DRIVEN – DRIVEL (‘foolish talk’) with the final letter L changed to N (‘must change finally’) | |
| 18 | They’re usually in cinemas, small things to munch (5) |
| SEATS – S (‘small’) EATS (‘things to munch’)
Good surface. |
|
I found this challenging but enjoyable, pushing me past my average but without getting too stuck ever. A great QC IMO, nothing too obscure but still plenty to work through.
Thanks to Hurley and BR.
5:53, maybe just a few quite abstract words making things feel harder than normal. Trying to recall if I’d ever seen a non-metal nut/bolt combo, I vaguely remember Meccano, but I think even that used metal. There may have been a younger kids’ version (like Duplo:Lego) which used plastic bolts. I have also seen wooden nuts and bolts in toy form, but surely those would be hand-tightened. Thinking of such toys put me in mind of a classic piece from The Onion many years back, which I just looked up and was shocked to discover is not politely citable here – how times change! Here it is anyway:
https://theonion.com/toy-buying-tips-for-parents-1819565975/
Do Americans typically know the term ‘spanner’?
Thank you Hurley and BletchleyReject!
I’ve definitely seen plastic nuts and bolts over here in the US for plumbing applications (I’m thinking specifically of toilet seats).
“Spanner” isn’t common parlance stateside but I think a sizable portion of the population is familiar with the term – especially those of us attempting the Times Crossword 😉
Ah right yeah of course, large plastic nuts on u-bends and so on. Non-spanner-using, though, I’d imagine. Quite interesting to think about which terms are the least familiar between UK/US English users – a bit like those top 10 male/female-only vocabulary knowledge lists that pop up from time to time.
After a bit of Wordle I sometimes tackle Connections where there are often references I don’t understand – like tailgate for party from recent memory but lots more.
Agreed – talking of tailgating, the sports one is even worse for difficult references, even though I like US sport[s]!
⚾️ !!
Definitely on the harder side for me, although I had no trouble with MATERIALISTIC as my second one in once I had the M-checker from MEEK in place. I slowed considerably after that and with 20 minutes on the clock I gave up with DAYDREAM missing.
I wonder if anyone else experienced printing problems on the QC today? I am sure my subpar time was down to these distractions. I have posted this in the Club Forum:
“Something has gone wrong with the print function on this particular puzzle (QC3077). Only the grid and clues appear in the pre-print view – there is no frame with Times Logo, title, setter’s name etc. When actually printed, the top and LH edges of the grid are cut off so that those squares have no clue numbers in them. This is when printing via both the online newspaper and the Club. The 15×15 puzzle was okay.”
Yes. It looked terrible. I waited until I’d finished the 15×15 to see if it had been fixed but it hadn’t. Disappointing.
My printed copy came out landscape, filling A4 sheet completely. I have all the clues and numbers but everything else missing!
Concise printed as normal.
I couldn’t parse SPANNER but didn’t let that delay me long whereas I did parse EXACT but it took me ages – just couldn’t separate ‘no longer’ from ‘strictly accurate’. I had trouble with ATTACK too before the groan that came with ‘oh, that kind of course’. Could be a very literal-minded day for me today. Mucked it up elsewhere with ATTsCK and DiSPAIR – where I just didn’t pause to parse, thought of dis-pairing as a couple breaking up and typed it in, presumably because the ‘losing hope’ bit made me think of splitting. Hope nothing requires close attention at work today. I’d been pleased with 14.13 until all the pink appeared. My month of accurate solving seems a long way way already.
DAYDREAM a clue worthy of the main cryptic and one that’s likely to slow down or trip up the solver. Around 12 minutes, from memory.
Thanks Bletchers and Hurley
A good workout this morning with plenty of head scratching along the way, the SW proving particularly hard to get a foothold in.
Started with ERRATIC and finished with MISPRINT in 11.08.
Thanks to BR and Hurley
Rather too many long slow WOEs recently. Today I spelled DEMONSTRATOR with ER at the end. And I took a long while – with paper and pencil – to get the DAYDREAM anagram.
I’m a bit baffled by the definition in 18dn “They’re usually in cinemas”. SEATS. In the same way that it might have been carpets, lights, curtains…. Am I missing something?
I have a dinky little plastic spanner that came with some new internet kit, for connecting the wires to the box. So cute that I kept it. I liked MISPRINT and CLEARANCE SALE.
Thanks to Hurley (despite seats and metal) and thanks to BR for the blog
I agree about SEATS. Unless we are all missing something it’s a very unsatisfactory clue, and has anyone ever known of a cinema that didn’t have seats, so why ‘usually’?
I once went to a 360 experience in a theme park where we stood in a darkened room and looked up at a screening which surrounded us. I think the idea was to try not to fall over!
A drive-in cinema, such as I experienced growing up in South Africa, has parking spaces but no seats.
Agreed. I grew up there, too and, as well as drive-in, we called it the bioscope. Best treat was the hot toasted sandwiches brought to the passenger side windows and munched on, during the film.
Likewise in Australia! And delightfully, a person came around offering coffee made with condensed milk and icecreams ( ‘Drumsticks’ and ‘Dandies’).
Always good on a hot Australian summer’s night…..
I thought the surface of SEATS was very clever as ‘small things to munch’ taken literally, without separating it into ‘small’ and ‘things to munch’, are also found ‘… usually in cinemas’.
Help please. Have you changed the format of the online QC or has our computer gone mad?
Help please. Have you changed the format of the online QC or has our computer gone mad?
This is not a duplicate comment
See my earlier comment about printing. There’s definitely something odd going on with this puzzle’s presentation today but I’ve no reason to think it’s more than a one-off glitch.
Gave up after 8 minutes. I couldn’t crack DAYDREAM, despite seeing how it worked, and that stopped me from developing the entire SW corner. However, I can have no excuse for not solving either EXACT or MISPRINT. Just a bad day at the office (though I was last there in 1993). Having typoed the concise, I won’t be attempting the 15×15 until later.
COD DEMONSTRATOR.
Thanks Hurley and BR. Enjoyed struggling with this. Could erratic be in the sense of a “glacial erratic”, an abnormal stone in an unusual place?
COD Ex-act!
26:43, gave up with a DNF, I found the 15×15 easier than this one today (completed in 40 mins).
Even the 1a anagram MATERIALISTIC was very hard to unpick. Did not consider it ending in a C. But real trouble was caused with entering ACCRUE (=charge) for ACCUSE which banjaxed DEMONSTRATOR.
And failed with DAYDREAM(didn’t see it as an anagram. Also the simpler MEEK and EXACT. Spent ages on CLEARANCE SALE, clue didn’t work the way I thought.
Wow, banjax! Your loss is my vocabulary gain. What a great word, thank you.
Expect to see it in a crossword near you.
Destroyed string instrument trimmed and cut. (8)
Excellent. And may help me remember it too.
13:47 (English conquer Calais. Black Death reaches the Mediterranean).
Very tricky, especially with 1a needing all the checkers to understand what was wanted.
No problems with SPANNERS being metal, despite memories of building things with Bilofix, which was a large version of Meccano, with plastic nuts, bolts and spanners.
I saw ERRATIC as having its meaning from geology – a glacially deposited rock that is abnormal compared with the rocks where it has ended up.
Thanks BR and Hurley
Rather enjoyed this and finished in 37 minutes.
Liked ATTACK and EXACT and putting together ACCUSE was very satisfying.
I was sure CHATTER was corrrct with C then HAT but couldn’t work out why TER was a supplier until the penny dropped.
Thanks Hurley and BR
20:59 for the solve and looking forward to meeting up with old friends in the SCC.
The SW corner held me up for about half of my time even though DAYDREAM went in on first readthrough with no checkers. Probably not helped by pencilling in an unparsed EDICT in there. Couple of times I felt a bit ‘overwhelmed’ by the clueing and trying to find the long answers despite having many checkers available. Definitely one of those puzzles which looks easier in the rearview mirror – knowing how to chop up clues the difficulty
Thanks to BR and Hurley
I’m with you today…good to see you again 😀
Well, I seem to be out of step yet again but in a good way this time. After a slow start and my usual jumping around the grid to get footholds, I seemed to build up some crossers and moved steadily through. I finished in 15 mins which doesn’t seem too bad in the circumstances.
I really needed the crossers for the long answers but they then seemed to drop out.
Thanks, both. Now to go through BR’s blog to check my parsing.
A mix of straightforward and complex. SW corner most troublesome, but managed to finish in a reasonably speedy (for me) 18:33.
Just about managed that though the SW corner was hardest, LOI DRIVEN. Thank you, BR, for explaining how SPANNER worked.
Solved the puzzle in 13,28 but fat fingered CHATTER by entering from the wrong square. CCHATTR for 2 errors Drat and double drat! FOI, MEEK, LOI, CLEARANCE SALE. Trickier than usual! Thanks Hurley and BR.
9:13
Pretty tough today and it was some time before I zoned in on any sort of wavelength, Quitch at 122 as I write. Lots of long anagrams, which I tend to avoid until I have a few checkers in, on which to anchor the other letters. 5 answers in on the first pass of acrosses. Didn’t parse SPANNER. Otherwise, strangely enjoyable (though I expect there will be a few disgruntled contestants today with some of the 15x15ish clueing).
Thanks BR and Hurley
On the wave today, long ones went in quite quickly so gave me plenty to work with. Liked EXACT and SEATS, short and amusing without being instantly obvious (to me, at least). No major delays, so two good days in a row.
Thanks both.
5:02. I too found the print version disconcerting. Fortunately I passed through the clues in order so the missing clue numbers didn’t impact me. LOI MISPRINTS after a bit of a hold up getting SEATS. Thanks Hurley and BR.
Brilliant QC. All doable, but lots of little snags on the way, and the clues had good surfaces. I found SPANNER impossible to parse, however long I peered at it, but it had to be right – in the end a nicely convoluted anagram! COD – 1ac.
34 mins…
Haven’t had a mudfest for quite a while, but this felt like quite a trudge. Not exactly sure why 11dn “Daydream” and 22ac “Misprint” took so long, but they accounted for a fair chunk of my time. The long 1ac “Materialistic” and 7dn “Clearance Sale” didn’t help.
Overall, a good, but tricky, workout from Hurley.
FOI – 8ac “Erratic”
LOI – 22ac “Misprint”
COD – 7dn “Clearance Sale”
Thanks as usual!
Like many, found this quite challenging. I was actually going relatively well until the SW corner, where I struggled and was pushed out to a 12:52 solve. LOI was DAYDREAM, put in from the definition and checkers alone as I failed to see”resort” as an anagram indicator.
Many thanks BR for the blog.
Very slow plus two mistakes. Failed on ACCUSE and EXACT, so DNF.
Pretty difficult.
Yes, I printed the puzzle so it filled the page but it looked odd.
Liked DEMONSTRATOR, MISPRINT, MEEK, among others.
Many thanks, BR.
Thanks to Hurley and BletchleyReject.
I thought it hard too.
SW was hardest, made more difficult by plumping for 16d DriveL rather than Driven. LOI 22a Misprint.
Not just me then that found this very tough, I see some seasoned solvers failed to finish. I was on the point of giving up myself, but bloody mindedness kicked in and my perseverance was rewarded with a finish, even if it did take 26.57 to achieve it. The culprit was the sw corner where I was in DESPAIR for too long, and an eternity on DAYDREAM. I can usually expect Hurley to push me to the limit of my target time, but I think he may have over egged this one.
I recommend persevering doggedly as a way to improve at these things. I’ve pretty much always done that, and have recorded some spectacular times! I know some people set time limits and others (speedsters) become frustrated at a certain point and jack it in, but I can look back after 15 years of doing these things seriously and say that it was sticking at it and teasing out those particularly troublesome clues that helped me improve – even to my modest levels.
I made slow progress through this but managed to finish after 16 minutes with LOI DAYDREAM.
I need POI EXACT (very good clue I thought) to get to the anagram for 11d.
I was also slow to get 1a and 1d needing all the checkers bar the M for 1a.
It was a puzzle that did not seem too hard with hindsight but I see from the comments above it troubled many.
Several good clues.
David
Very chewy. 42:37 but I had PROVEN instead of DRIVEN. Should have considered it again as I couldn’t think of how PROVE_ could be foolish talk, but after that long, I needed to get on with things. Thanks anyway.