This was a cracker, one of the most entertaining QC’s I’ve done for a while. Some may find a bit on the tricky side, but there is ample reward for perseverance. Particular faves are 15 and 21 ac.
Time: 07:22
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Error by staff installing a route to service station? (4,4) |
| SLIP ROAD – SLIP + ROD with A inserted | |
| 5 | Block source of problematic moisture (4) |
| DAMP – DAM (block) + P for Problematic | |
| 8 | Taking tops off and immersing ourselves, loving invigorating dip (5) |
| AIOLI – acronym | |
| 9 | Spooner’s declared river is a body of water (4,3) |
| DEAD SEA – Spooner would say ‘Said Dee’ | |
| 11 | Perhaps Eeyore’s back half is crucial (3) |
| KEY – Eeyore is a donKEY | |
| 12 | Getting gradually louder, crocs need exercising (9) |
| CRESCENDO – anagram (‘exercising’) of CROCS NEED | |
| 13 | Board overcome by problem bar knights (6) |
| EMBARK – hidden word. Curarist’s third law: if it all makes absolutely no sense at all, look for the hidden word | |
| 15 | Origins of trees and ends of trees (6) |
| FIRSTS – FIRS + TS (each end of ‘trees’). This was my favourite, a cruel misdirection making you assume it begins with T or TE, and lovely symmetry. | |
| 18 | Fussy process transformed a grim job (9) |
| RIGMAROLE – anagram (‘transformed’) of A GRIM + ROLE (job) | |
| 19 | Appearance of couple with no power (3) |
| AIR – PAIR minus P for power | |
| 20 | Show hoax proof of qualification briefly (7) |
| CONCERT – CON (hoax) + CERT (ificate) | |
| 21 | Renovate and/or decorate (5) |
| ADORN – anagram (‘renovate’) of AND OR. Another beautifully symmetrical clue. | |
| 22 | Pressure amateur to perform (4) |
| PLAY – P + LAY | |
| 23 | Pub with zero VAT first in Essex to modernise? (8) |
| INNOVATE – INN + O + VAT + E for Essex | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | King left, bathed in remaining glittering light (7) |
| SPARKLE – K + L inside SPARE (remaining) | |
| 2 | Pale, like a little Welsh steam train, perhaps? (5) |
| IVORY – Referring to Ivor The Engine, a 1970s animated TV series by the legendary Oliver Postgate who also made The Clangers. | |
| 3 | Control a trance, writhing around, return to life (11) |
| REINCARNATE – REIN (control) + anagram (‘writhing around’) of A TRANCE | |
| 4 | Supplement guided and confused (6) |
| ADDLED – ADD + LED | |
| 6 | Agrees rises verbally (7) |
| ASSENTS – sounds like ASCENTS | |
| 7 | Large set of keys regularly split a new ring (5) |
| PIANO – Alternate letters of sPlIt + A + N + O | |
| 10 | Go each April, travelling around group of islands (11) |
| ARCHIPELAGO – anagram (‘travelling around’) of GO EACH APRIL | |
| 14 | Botanists exploring Greece initially uncovered Ionian flowering plant (7) |
| BEGONIA – First letters of Botanists Exploring Greece + ONIA (IONIAN ‘uncovered’) | |
| 16 | Sergeant, lacking some energy, spilled rum (7) |
| STRANGE – anagram (‘spilled’) of SERGEANT minus an E. Another misdirect, ‘rum’ usually being an anagrind | |
| 17 | Soothe son frequently (6) |
| SOFTEN – S + OFTEN | |
| 18 | Heading north, speed regulator run over again (5) |
| RECAP – PACER backwards | |
| 19 | Mother gets to the bottom of a right old smell (5) |
| AROMA – A + R + O + MA | |
I made a right mess of this one. The only one I could claim to not know was the little welsh train.
I was terrified of the Spoonerism but that wasn’t so bad, I don’t know why the whole thing wss such a problem, I even got the two long ones.
An enjoyable 21.38 with about 5 minutes taking several looks at firsts, which ended up LOI and a bit of a trawl before the PDM. If only we had spotted end[s] of trees, misread so only using the s!
COD to ivory, lovely memories of the show, and a very funny bassoon player when I was in the county youth orchestra, who would drop in a line from the theme tune in quiet moments 😀
Thanks Kybos and Curarist
DNF at around 23 minutes with AIOLI (now, post blog, very annoyed with ourselves).
What an excellent crossword. We attribute our slowness to Kybos’ cleverness. : ) (Any excuse).
And what, pray tell, Mr Curarist, are your first two Laws (noting your occupation -ignoring possible first, ‘Go to sleep!’ Second, ‘Wake up!’)?
Thank you so much Kybos – and gratitude to C for a very good blog.
I have lots of laws that are all called the ‘third’. Maybe after my passing someone will catalogue them properly, like Mozart.
: )
on a tangent – my mother used to have a nifty way, with reference to the ‘K’ number, of discerning Mozart’s age at time of composition …have not thought of that for years… mr Google tells me the method: divide by 25 add 10.. so, thank you for the prod! More gleaned via TFTT, my daily source of education.
Based on the statistic that after the age of ten (1766), he turned out a published work roughly every two weeks until his death in 1791
Or Köchel perhaps?
14 minutes. Definitely in the enjoyably hard category for me with FIRSTS, CONCERT, IVORY (NHO the TV programme) and STRANGE (especially spotting the ‘rum’ def) all taking a while to sort out. I’ll go for BEGONIA as my COD, mainly because it’s a ‘flowering plant’ I recognised straight away, very unusual for me in crossword land.
Thanks to Kybos and Curarist
A top quality puzzle that I initially thought was going to fairly gentle but also included a few toughies to make this a harder than average puzzle.
IVORY was a write in for people of my age and brought back some happy memories whereas SPARKLE, BEGONIA, RIGMAROLE and CONCERT required my thinking cap to be firmly in place.
Started with SLIPROAD and finished with CONCERT in 9.01. COD to ADORN.
Thanks to Curarist and Kybos
Great puzzle, shame I stuffed it up. I know I can’t spell RIGMAROLE and today I found a new way to get it wrong – which didn’t even parse. I then put CONtest which I grumpily thought didn’t work before the four pink squares and two errors put me back in my box. IVORY was lovely. Fast but inaccurate.
31:35 First ivory aïoli in concert did me. Tricky tough but fair.
Ta CAK
Got there in 29.30.
I really enjoyed this and seemed to be on the setter’s wavelength.
Had a different parsing for 1 down SPA +R. Though I readily admit SPA doesn’t really fit bathed. Your version is much better.
COD BEGONIA A straightforward clue that took me ages to see.
LOI FIRSTS.
Thanks Curarist and Kybos
11:14 and enjoyed every second. In such a well crafted puzzle it’s hard to identify favourite clues but I did like my last two solved: FIRSTS and RIGMAROLE. IVORY produced a happy smile when I realised that I did know the little Welsh engine.
Thank you Kybos for an enchanting puzzle and Curarist for a great blog.
What a great QC, too many choices to pick a favourite clue.
Whizzed through this until I came to “Firsts”. I took the ends of trees to be es (last 2 letters), then did the alphabet trawl for the first 4 letters, including firs obviously. No such word as Firses. Then the penny droped.(sorry, couldn’t resist).
Are firsts really origins?
Very enjoyable. Thanks Kybos and Curarist.
Four in 20, 12 in 30.
Going back for another crack before reading the blog.
Took ages to see LOI FIRSTS but got there in the end. NHO IVOR the engine, and staff = ROD passed me by, thanks, Curarist.
I took almost as long to finish this as I did for my first puzzle from Kybos (both well into the SCC). I persevered and worked it all through in spurts but I simply could not tune in to Kybos’s wavelength.
I enjoyed some of the clues (FIRSTS, PIANO, BEGONIA and some good anagrams) but this was just too quirky for me. A frustrating solve. Tough. Hard to describe it as a QC.
Thanks to curarist for the helpful blog.
A struggle. Decent enough, but it didn’t meet my definition of a QC.
FOI SLIP ROAD
LOI CONCERT*
COD RIGMAROLE
TIME 6:47
* I had CON-E-T during my first pass, but the second half took a while to register.
14:32. Slow to get going. FOI KEY. LOIs AIOLI and IVORY. I really liked FIRSTS. Thank you Kybos for a great puzzle and thank you Curarist for the fine blog
8:19 for the solve. That I reached my last pair of STRANGE and FIRSTS (LOI) at six mins and then took over two mins to sort them out; plus earlier stumbling around looking for a hidden word in EEYORE because I had the Y from IVORY makes me think this was indeed potentially difficult. But other than those I really seemed to be on the wavelength and just reading clues/definitions correctly. Nice puzzle indeed and some great surfaces in there. Fond memories of watching Ivor the Engine in the pre-news slot on the BBC before Neighbours took over.
Fourth sub-10 of the week but coming in with a total of 55mins after Wednesday’s Bjorn 24min disaster!
Have a good weekend everybody and thanks to Curarist and Kybos
That’s a very impressive time #50.
Good time. Personally, I thought Ivor the Engine was as tedious as Paddington and Bagpuss. People look back on some of this stuff and say it was great, but for a lot of kids growing up during this time (ie. me), it was really dull.
You were obviously ahead of your time because you’re right it was all very tame. But I was somewhat of an escapist when it came to kids television so tended to dive in and lose myself.
What I really appreciate now is the actors who did the voiceovers – Michael Hordern for Paddington, Richard Briers for Roobarb & Custard, Bernard Cribbins for the Wombles, John Le Mesurier for Bod and Arthur Lowe for the Mr Men.
Totally appreciate the craft from a technical standpoint, and if I look back at some of the stories I can see their appeal. But at the time, it was 10 minutes to kill until tea.
I too enjoyed this. Much of it was witty but fairly straightforward, and then there was a handful of snorters to keep you on your toes. FIRSTS was LOI and very good once understood, but it took a couple of minutes and was a proper 15 clue, blimey. COD to IVORY for the chuckle.
Having made a typo on the Concise today I took special care on this … and made a typo again, REINCRRNATE. So it would have been seven forty four (not using numbers to avoid confusing the scraper) but WOE.
Many thanks Kybos the Cube and Curarist.
21:14 to finish, but several biffs needed to get there. A mix of the fairly obvious and the rather obscure I found, but entertaining.
Thought this would be a struggle, but once I got going I really enjoyed today’s puzzle. Some great misdirection. Thanks Kybos and Curarist
Witty, clever but tricky. Took ages, I admit, but got there in the end. I don’t know why it took me so long to get SLIP, which gave me LOI IVORY. Ivor the Engine, of course! Reminded me of the unrelated Thomas the Tank Engine, boring books to read aloud but the children loved them.
Was also slow on FIRSTS. And indeed CONCERT, despite having attended one two nights ago.
Thanks vm, Curarist.
Great one, but really not a fan of using ‘train’ meaning ‘locomotive’.
Somewhat tricky. Fortunately I knew of IVOR but can imagine many solvers will be clueless! I was held up at the end by FIRSTS and CONCERT. COD to ADORN. 8:46 Thanks Curarist
Glad to see other people found this hard too, especially FIRSTS. Nobody else has admitted to being in the double SCC yet though. Got there in 40:45. COD to RIGMAROLE. Thanks Curarist and Kybos
12:34, which is below my average, but it still felt quite hard. On balance I thought it was generally easy to lift and separate but tricky to parse. Anyway, I enjoyed it.
Thank you for the blog!
Tough, fair and enjoyable but sadly a DNF.
As usual it was the hidden that did for me: EMBARK in this case.
And had to reveal RECAP to finish in the SW.
There was a great deal of satisfaction in solving many of these clues such as FIRSTS.
Thanks Curarist and Kybos.
Very enjoyable. Thanks to Kybos and Curarist. Had to reveal rigmarole which gave me all the rest except firsts.
Tough but enjoyable. At least I finished all correct today. Took me 23 minutes compared to an average of about 15.
LOI was PIANO where I struggled to see the definition.
I really liked DEAD SEA, a superior Spooner clue, and there was lots of great stuff in here.
Not a QC for beginners.
David
27 minutes all parsed. I was pretty slow throughout but continued to make progress so it was just a question of how long it would take to get to the end.
FOI – 8ac AIOLI
LOI – 15ac FIRSTS
COD – 2dn IVORY
Thanks to Kybos and Curarist
A very enjoyable QC today, despite having to wait until PIANO to get started. After that I abandoned any attempt to move sequentially through the clues and just jumped around the grid in a totally disorganised way.
Approx. 24 minutes for me with IVORY making me smile, DEAD SEA not being as difficult as most Spooner-related clues and FIRSTS being my LOI.
Many thanks to Curarist and Kybos.
I agree with others that this was an excellent puzzle, but certainly tough for a QC. I don’t think I would have got IVORY too easily if I hadn’t heard of Ivor the Steam Engine, but my main hold up was with my last two EMBARK and finally FIRSTS. If the setter feels the urge to throw me, they have simply to hide the answer in the clue as with EMBARK, I’m always pathetically slow at finding them. I spent too long with an emery board in mind before finally seeing what was in plain sight. I finally finished in 13.42 well outside target.
My total time for the week was 63.02, giving me a daily average of 12.36. A tough week I thought, and my slowest weekly average for quite a while.
My thanks to Kybos and Curarist.
Definitely a few tricky bits but there was always a way forward.
15a Firsts, LOI, took some brain-power, then Doh!
2d Ivor The Engine, I had forgotten the details and rather thought he was a “friend” of Thomas the tank engine, but no.
6:26. Nice one. A couple of trickier clues pushed my time out a bit. I liked FIRSTS best and was stuck for a while on my LOI, EMBARK failing for too long to spot it was a hidden answer. Thank-you Kybos and Curarist.
Taken over my target by this tricky but enjoyable puzzle. Smiled at IVORY and even remembered Idris! A slow start with ADDLED FOI. Wasted time on RIGMAROLE, ruling it out as there seemed to be a B in the anagrist. Doh! Eventually got into the swing and finished with BEGONIA and EMBARK. Slow to see the hidden there! 11:40. Thanks Kybos and Curarist.
I don’t remember doing a QC by Kybos before but, if today’s is anything to go by, I will certainly look out for the next one. By no means an easy solve, and I had to revisit some clues several times, but 22mins seems OK judged against those I normally sit with. I might even have squeezed a sub-20, but loi Concert was a doubtful Contest for a long time, with (at)test for the proof. Firsts on the other hand seemed fairly straightforward, albeit with the ‘i’ in place. CoD to the cunning Adorn, in a very strong field. My thanks to Kybos and of course Curarist. Invariant
Proceeded apace with this enjoyable puzzle until kybos kiboshed my progress with FIRSTS and RIGMAROLE. Anyway, all finished and parsed without recourse to any help, but the cuppa was pretty cool before i laid down my pen.
Thanks Kybos and Curarist
A very enjoyable puzzle, with lots of good clues, all done in 10:42. It would have been faster, but I spent nearly 2 minutes on my LOI, FIRSTS. The general consensus seems to be that this was an excellent clue – it was certainly clever, and very deceptive, but a very slight wonder from me if Firsts and Origins are really close enough synonyms.
Many thanks Curarist for the blog.
I think in 17a the definition is smooth and frequently (often) part of the clue.
7:24
I can’t remember if we’ve seen Kybos around these parts before, but this was a very accessible puzzle. I liked the hidden EMBARK and the memory-evoking IVOR-Y. Ivor the Engine’s creator, Oliver Postgate, also well remembered for Bagpuss, Noggin The Nog, and Pogles Wood, as well as being the cousin of Angela Lansbury.
Thanks Curarist and Kybos
9.36 with a typo
Crikey – stared at _I_S_S for who knows how long, even though I had thought of FIR at one point. IVORY was good though toughish for our transatlantic fans and anyone under a certain age presumably.
Enjoyable. Thanks Kybos and Curarist.
9:08. Can’t remember the last time I beat my brother so a good day …
Or over a certain age! The TV shows in my childhood were Muffin the Mule, The Flower Pot Men, Andy Pandy……..and we didn’t even have a TV – I had to watch them at friends’ houses. I biffed IVORY from the I and the Y; never got FIRSTS.
DNF.
Could hardly do a single one of these clues. Far too hard for a QC. Since this is all I buy this newspaper for I shall not be
buying one for a while until these puzzles start being doable again.
Very upsetting.
Cheaper to subscribe online or I think you can access the QC on the web on the same day it is published. Ask chatGPT to find it for you?
18 minute DNF.
Another disastrous effort, capped off by entering AEOLI. Didn’t understand the clue and guessed this, so can’t say it was mere carelessness. Though it sounded right, but of course it wasn’t.
What a dreadful week. No good times and a DNF to cap off the misery. Fed up at my inability to improve.
Took one look at 15 x 15 and gave up. Way beyond what I am capable of.
For me, this was only slightly harder than average. Of course, as a US solver ivory was just a guess, and like everyone else I got stuck for a minute on firsts.
Time: 9:10
25 mins…
Some tricky clues here. Apart from my usual inability to spell Archipelago (I always get the “i” and the “e” the wrong way around), there was the somewhat obscure 2dn Ivor the Engine reference (🥱) and trying to think why a pub would be “Ren” for 23ac. I then got bogged down in the SW corner, especially in trying all sorts of anagram combinations for 18ac “Rigmarole”.
FOI – 1ac “Sliproad”
LOI – 18dn “Recap”
COD – 15ac “Firsts”
Thanks as usual!
Really nice crossword – thanks, Kybos, and Curarist for the blog. 8 mins.
Slow to solve RIGMAROLE, STRANGE and LOI FIRSTS, otherwise all seemed fairly straightforward. COD IVORY but I also liked DEAD SEA. Many thanks Kybos and C.
16.31 A steady solve until I was breeze-blocked by FIRST, which is a very good clue. Thanks Curarist and Kybos.
16:32 and a very think-y process it was. SLIP ROAD is foreign to me so things didn’t start very well. I didn’t know about IVOR either so needed some crossers. I was too dull to see some should-have-been write-ins: AIOLI, RIGMAROLE, PLAY among them. Maybe I needed two coffees this morning. Loved FIRSTS, CRESCENDO, and AIOLI.
Thanks Kybos and Curarist.
21:16 – DNF
What an absolutely brilliant crossword!
Bunged in DEAD SEA unparsed with fingers crossed – I struggle with spoonerisms.
Then bunged in BIASES in desperation for my LOI FIRSTS.
FOI: SLIP ROAD
LOI: DNF
COD: FIRSTS – brilliant!
A very big thank you to both Kybos and Curarist
10:20
A couple of mistakes needed backtracking: TWINKLE and INNOVATE, but thats what wordplay is for, to check your working.
Some great clues, but the Spooner one was a bit weak.
And/or is a curious device, the slash is actually and “and/or” and so you end up with a crazy recursion.
Glad that CRESCENDO was clued as “getting gradually louder”. In demotic speech it usually means just “loud noise” as in “the noise of the crowd reached a crescendo”.