Not too tricky, but plenty of interesting things on offer.
I made fairly straight progress through this, finishing up in 5:06, about a minute quicker than yesterday. There was some nicely quirky clueing and bits of deviousness spread throughout.
Many thanks to Mara!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Using paw, dish finally in a lather — doing this? (7,2) |
| WASHING UP – anagram (in a lather) of USING PAW and H (disH “finally”) | |
| 6 | Tree the solver picked up? (3) |
| YEW – is “picked up”, or heard the same as you (the solver) | |
| 8 | Halloween item to get one’s own blood circulating? (7) |
| PUMPKIN – cryptic hint, with KIN = one’s own blood | |
| 9 | Superhero’s sidekick dressin’ (5) |
| ROBIN – ROBING = DRESSING | |
| 10 | Understand what to do — as 11 probably would? (4,3,5) |
| KNOW THE SCORE – double-ish definition, with 11d = WAGNERIAN | |
| 12 | Puritan swine claims right (4) |
| PRIG – PIG (swine) claims R(ight) | |
| 13 | Yen in Tokyo, currency here primarily (4) |
| ITCH – the “primary” letters of the previous four words, including that pesky little IN | |
| 17 | Eccentric hunting loner, ultimately (2,3,4,3) |
| IN THE LONG RUN – anagram (eccentric) of HUNTING LONER | |
| 20 | Defence from boxer with big cut (5) |
| ALIBI – ALI (boxer, as in Muhammed) with BIG in plain sight, “cut” | |
| 21 | Feeble executive in frogman’s outfit (3,4) |
| WET SUIT – WET (feeble) SUIT (executive) | |
| 23 | Appreciate archaeological site (3) |
| DIG – double definition | |
| 24 | Fresh herb and hollow nut in shop (9) |
| NEWSAGENT – NEW (fresh) SAGE (herb) and NT (“hollow” N |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Clean nick, ceiling scrubbed (4) |
| WIPE – SWIPE = nick, “scrub” the “ceiling”, which in a down clue is the top or first letter | |
| 2 | Marines all at sea in conference (7) |
| SEMINAR – anagram (all at sea) of MARINES | |
| 3 | Type I like every so often (3) |
| ILK – I and L i K e “every so often” | |
| 4 | Indian leader partial to meditating, and high-born (6) |
| GANDHI – “partial to” meditatinG AND HIgh-born | |
| 5 | Cold fading away (9) |
| PERISHING – double definition | |
| 6 | Old bishop lad knocked over, thug! (5) |
| YOBBO – O(ld) B(ishop) BOY (lad) all knocked over, or reversed. YOB is “back slang” for BOY. Back slang was an early Victorian invention among market sellers so they could chit-chat right in front of customers without them understanding. As an example, “one butcher particularly disliked a certain customer; when he saw her coming he’d call to his assistant: ‘tuck the dillo woc a tib of dillo woc’ — ‘cut the old cow a bit of old cow’.” | |
| 7 | Footballer’s victory over Germany (6) |
| WINGER – WIN (victory) over GER(many) | |
| 11 | Waning era upset fan of composer (9) |
| WAGNERIAN – anagram (upset) of WANING ERA | |
| 14 | Tailoring unfashionable, make better clothes (7) |
| COUTURE – OUT (unfashionable) is “clothed” by CURE (make better) | |
| 15 | Bonzer bloke from Oz? (6) |
| WIZARD – double definition | |
| 16 | Dog in curtsey, I’m amazed! (3-3) |
| BOW-WOW – BOW (curtsey) WOW! (I’m amazed!). Originally the bark of a dog, before becoming a childish name for the dog itself. About the earliest appearance is in the Tempest: “Harke, harke, bowgh wawgh: the watch-Dogges barke.“ | |
| 18 | Freaky night for Addams Family character (5) |
| THING – anagram (freaky) of NIGHT | |
| 19 | Test failed, mark written in margin (4) |
| STET – anagram (failed) of TEST. Latin for “let it stand”, a direction written in the margin of a manuscript, etc, that something which has been altered or struck out is to remain uncorrected. Tricky little clue if you don’t know the word; it’s one of the things I’ve managed to remember from some dim and distant crossword. | |
| 22 | Drink character mentioned? (3) |
| TEA – sounds/is mentioned the same as TEE, or T, as in the letter. | |
Not too hard, although I did biff yahoo before immediately erasing it. I don’t really care for clues where the wordplay is enabled by etymology, but they are legal. On the other hand, newsagent is a really-high quality clue, and I did use the cryptic to solve it. I don’t have bonzer in my vocabulary, but with the crossing letters the answer was pretty obvious.
Time: 6:26
2:59, so on the wavelength but heartily agree that there was some interesting stuff here. ‘Bonzer’ is a word mainly familiar from bad impressions of Australians, meaning that you do a double-take when you actually see it written down (as well as semantic interference from ‘bonze’ creeping in). Is ‘bow-wow’ still used as a noun? I agree that STET is tricky; the kind of answer that could infuriate a newcomer.
As a recent 60 year old convert to crosswords, I thought this was very fair. Thank you
What gets my goat is bizarre references to words that I have never heard of in my life on this earth.
Make The Times more accessible please. That can be done with cleverer clueing than obscure vocab. Happy with the Gen Z references too.
Not just referencing this puzzle of course, far from it. However the QC should have the same vocab as the man on the clapham omibus, and no more.
Are there any particular words in this puzzle your goat was got by? I’m not really seeing anything particularly obscure although bonzer=wizard seems to have be problematic for a few people.
Of course, we all have different levels of knowledge and GK … I’m not sure my twentysomething daughter would know what the clapham omnibus is
My millennial physiotherapist had never heard of the Clapham Omnibus nor the man on it allegedly.
There has been lots of debate over obscure vocabulary in this blog. Imine was the one that comes to mind, even as a Chemistry graduate and ex Industrial Chemist that one is a doozy, and where as the rules of wordplay are different for the 13×13 and the 15×15 the vocab ones are the same, namely that the word is in any one of the nominated dictionaries with the given meaning (even words that are clearly marked as the American spelling, as discussed recently).
Crosswords are an excellent way to expand your vocabulary. And it’s worth remembering the more obscure terms as they have a habit of cropping up again. I’ve been caught out twice by AGA SAGA.
That said, there’s nothing obscure today unless you’ve not heard of haute couture?
I have certainly learned a few words from doing crosswords, but I can’t recall ever using any of them for any purpose except doing other crosswords. Makes it a bit of a circular argument – if they wernt included in crosswords then I would not have learned them, but then I would never need them as they aren’t included in crosswords.
I think STET counts as an unnecessary obscurity, as already noted. It is highly technical, and surely obsolete now. How many manuscripts are doubly reviewed on paper? If setter was left with these letters then STAT was a much better, and more up to date.
Numerical fact is housed inside Estate (4)
I would have struggled with your hidden STAT, but STET is not obscure, as far as I am concerned. Not that technical, surely? Will check with offspring next time they are around.
Later. Youngest confirms he knows STET.
Stet no problem for me, but what is stat?
Short for statistic. Rarely see the singular but stats is common
Stet is the present (iussive) subjunctive in Latin, with the precise meaning “let it stand/stay” – I.e stay as it originally was. stat is the present indicative meaning “it stands/stays” which is less clear, as it was originally or as it is after the correction.
I didn’t understand the parsing of TEA.
Stet came easy enough from my days in marketing and proof reading copy.
The letter T is the character, mentioned sounds like TEA
I would be a bit bored and would probably ultimately wander away if QC vocabulary were limited as you suggest. Tastes vary.
I agree – and enjoy meeting unfamiliar words.
I struggled more than others obviously did, coming home in 11.52. The dog did it for me but all good fun, thanks Mara and Roly.
The newsagent was always my favourite shop – our town had two and then a third opened that was bigger with way more stuff. Heaven. So now feel all melancholy that I needed checkers to come up with a shop beginning in N. Enjoyed this one. All green in 8.31.
I struggled a lot more than LindsayO so I’m not posting my embarrassing time here!
NHO yobbo, or backwards slang, not really a Canadian thing. Bonzer unknown too. I guess I need to brush up on my “clapham omnibus” vocab, as well as my Spanish, French, German and Latin. Only having one language is a drawback.
I also haven’t heard of curtsey = bow, is that a crossword thing?
Thanks Mara an Roly, and others here for my crosswordland education.
Bow, as in what men do when presented to Royalty while women curtsey, in my experience.
You have experience, please elaborate!
3x Queen’s Awards, 2x King’s Awards (Full house!) for Innovation over the years, attended each at Buckingham Palace. All those presented to HRH bowed/curtseyed as appropriate. Memorable conversations to share with grand children one day. Unlike Mr Bean/Curb your enthusiasm, I did not practice my bow but it comes in handy in Japan.
Impressive! Good work..
A bow isn’t the same as a curtsey, is what I meant. I always thought of a curtsey as more of a “bob”.
IMHO they aren’t synonymous, but I’ve been wrong many times before.
I agree that bow and curtsey are not synonymous.
8:07, at least a minute of that spent backtracking and correcting typosl
DNK ‘bonzer’, so relied on the ‘man from Oz’ –although isn’t the Wizard from the US? STET no problem; I’ve used it myself.
As in Wizard of Oz? But yes from the US. Anyway, this was the on I didn’t get… otherwise all fine.
13.04 and happy – though took too long on WIPE and WIZARD (the obvious eluded us, as it so often does).
PUMPKIN – we made a sort of melange with ‘one’s own’ > KIN and ‘blood circulating’ >PUMPing.
Unnecessarily convoluted?
FOI WASHING UP
LOI WIZARD
COD NEWSAGENT
Just under 13 minutes because I biffed a wrong answer RH of the grid and lost considerable time unraveling my error. WIZARD was my LOI, as diverted by ‘bonzer’ and ‘Oz’ in the clue I assumed the answer would be something else Australian that others might be familiar with but I wouldn’t know.
STET is such a staple of crosswords at all levels it needs to be learnt.
A very good puzzle from one of our veteran setters.
A lot to enjoy and nothing too tricky.
Started with WASHING UP and finished with COUTURE in 6.44.
Thanks to Roly and Mara
10:03, but would have been much faster except for brainfreeze in the SW corner. NHO the word Bonzer and assumed the answer was some sort of Australian slang, and didn’t understand THING. The answer was clear – the only possible anagram of Night – but a minor character in a series I have never watched was always going to be a big ask, and perhaps stretches the “G” in GK a bit.
Many thanks Roly for the blog.
15:54
Wizard in wetsuit thwarted by bow-wow in newsagent sums it up.
Ta RAM
A smooth solve except LOI WIZARD over witch (sic) I am still puzzling. Just shy of 20 minutes.
Thanks Roly and Mara.
What fun! A speedy-for-me 09.16 today.
Pi ❤️
Sub-10, nice work!
Couldn’t do the bottom half at all, then the difficult NEWSAGENT appeared, unlocking the rest. After going through all the states and towns of Oz, finally LOI PDM (nice to see I’m in good company there) WIZARD. Phew! Thanks, Roly.
Thank you, Cedric, same here, only vaguely HO the Addams Family, couldn’t name you a single character, but it was obvious from the crossers + wordplay.
Heading towards a comfortable sub 20m when the WIZARD ALIBI pairing brought me up short. Finally worked out the clever misdirection towards Australia and they both fell into place at 20.39.
Thanks Mara and Roly.
A strange experience. I finished in 16.58 but seemed to spend more time than usual finding the puzzle itself (the list of available puzzles is amazingly long and the sequence changes from day to day).
Then a tussle with the QC layout on my iPad (using the Classic Times app). Once again some wag has been messing with the layout – a massive grid and settings like ‘skip filled squares’ had been completely reset (and not by me). I went through a reset step by step and it is now back to the layout of yesterday (but not the perfectly satisfactory appearance of yesteryear).
Only then could I give some thought to the puzzle itself. I am fed up of all this messing about with layout – lots of changes and never for the better. Perhaps everyone else uses the ‘new’ Times app (or else the Crossword Club pages). I am set in my ways but am wondering whether I should rethink my access to the online puzzle.
Does anyone else have these problems? Why does ‘progress’ with The Times app always seem to take me backwards? I have done the online QC for years (from No. 1) with no problems until the last few months.
Oh, and the crossword seemed fair with only WIPE and WIZARD causing me problems.
Thanks to Mara and Roly.
Sorry for the rant but I am even considering printing the b****y thing and using a pen…..
Go for the pen. It’s quite nice seeing a whole grid (slowly) fill in, and there’s no tempting check facility.
My problems are lesser but nonetheless irritating. The font is consistently horrid, the puzzles on the Classic app (using an iPad mini) appear in any old order, different every day, and I dislike having to search around for those I wish to do. Also the quintagrams haven’t worked for months.
Complaining to management has no effect. Reinstalling the app has no effect.
Having taken out an online subscription to save paper I’m starting to feel somewhat cheated and will probably have to resort to printing out the puzzles.
Having been in IT almost all of my working life I always have printed out, if you have two biros there is very little to go wrong, and you have scribble space to work out the anagrams.
Ironically it’s IT employed Mr K who’s stopping me from printing them out, he works from home and doesn’t like any disturbances in the study. Happily he retires at Christmas so that particular problem will be solved.
I hope he enjoys his retirement as much as I am enjoying mine, perhaps he will print out two copies for you to enjoy together.
Thank you 😊
I find the format in the Crossword Club to be a lot more user friendly and also very consistent. The one time I recently had to use the puzzle pages I thought it was horrendous.
I agree – much better. But I seem to think that MH made some reference recently to changing the club layout too. I sincerely hope they don’t muck about with it.
Agreed.
Same here. Also I ditched the app pronto after trying it on my phone. Crossword Club via browser works better for me and I’ve been spared all these changes (so far) that everyone’s been complaining about.
As Invariant says, I find seeing the whole grid very helpful as you can dot back and forth if necessary. Also I find it useful to have somewhere to scribble, especially for anagrams and when I can’t visualise a down clue.
MrB prints the grids for the quickie and the 15×15 from the club site for me every morning (‘daily crossword delivery’) using scrap paper. We’re currently going through all the letters from a house move in 1988 😂 I struggle to understand why we still have this paperwork, but it moved here with us and was recently rediscovered, having been in the loft for 32 years!
Totally agree with complaints about the new layout on the iPad with Classic Times app. Far less convenient than the previous layout – why change it?
Thanks to all of you who have reacted to my (bad-tempered) post above. I will try your various suggestions if nothing improves pdq with the current access to, and formatting of, Crosswords on the Classic Times app.
Ianbk’s comment chimes with my thinking. So many areas of life seem to involve change for change’s sake in the belief that ‘new’ and ‘improved’ is automatically helpful and better without giving any consideration to the consequences for those affected. Especially true amongst programmers and IT specialists who often seem to expect users to find the bugs in their software for them.
Whatever happened to ‘if it ain’t broke don’t ‘fix’ it’?
This article about changes to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology website made me think of you … https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2k4dy15nqqo
18:34 with only WIPE, COUTURE and YEW holding me up a little. Biffed PUMPKIN and THING, knowing nothing about the ADDAMS Family.
7:57 for the solve. Fairly wizzed through this although I wasn’t sure it was as easy as others make out. Particularly impressed by the surface and hidden of GANDHI. Finished up with COUTURE and NEWSAGENT (LOI).
Thanks to Rolytoly and Mara
A slow 13:50 today with most of that time (well, it felt like most of it) spent on LOI PERISHING, which I just couldn’t see. So, good clue. No problems though with WIZARD which I greatly enjoyed.
Thank you Mara for the puzzle and rolytoly for the blog
Very enjoyable QC today. I read 10A as eleven players would know the score, but now realise using the digits indicates a different clue.
Old enough to remember the cringy ‘Daddy wouldn’t buy me a bow-wow’.
LOI WIZARD due to clever misdirection. Thanks Roly for great blog – amusing info on back slang.
Some very good surfaces and clever clueing including COUTURE, GANDHI and NEWSAGENT. And I like the occasional cross-reference. 7:32.
11:49, which is below my average but it still felt like a bit of a biff-fest. Not sure why; on reflection it all seems fair, so perhaps I just haven’t woken up yet.
Thank you for the blog!
So I didn’t know there was such a word as WAGNERIAN but it had to be. Presumably this can be extended to other composers – Bachian and Beethovenian? Other than that I found the solve straight forward and particularly liked YOBBO and STET. Thanks Roly 6:35
I did know Wagnerian, but added Bachian and Beethovenian to my Cheating Machine; thank you, both are in my dictionary but were not in CM.
11 minutes. I’m another who fell for the misdirection in the clue for WIZARD which was my LOI. I didn’t know STET as a ‘mark written in the margin’. Yes, sad to see that the NEWSAGENT as a stand alone, often family run shop has almost disappeared from many cities in this part of the world.
Thanks to Roly and Mara
It’s the Latin for “let it stand”. You write it in the margin to correct a deletion you think is wrong (usually putting two vertical lines through the struck-out word to show what should stand).
Ah now that’s interesting. In my cut and paste days, we used to put dotted lines under that word to be kept, with stet in the margin
I agree, Penny. Same here. What I had to cope with in later life was ‘Track Changes’ – nightmare.
I agree about the dotted lines; I worked as an editor and proofreader in pre-computer days and that was standard usage. Incidentally, wetsuit has been one word for years!
My big hold-up was PERISHING which took me about three minutes on its own. But I finished in 15.
Some good clues. I liked PERISHING and NEWSAGENT best.
DNK BONZER and am about to look it up. I did vaguely remember THING from the Addams family. The GK debates are always interesting. In this case I think the anagram of NIGHT was very clear.
David
All fine but too quick, as I carelessly put Inch instead of ITCH.
CNP WIPE, or blood=kin, or COUTURE
Liked WIZARD, WET SUIT, THING, and the long clues.
Dig=appreciate is 60s-speak so I got it.
Nearly missed the hidden GANDHI.
Thanks vm, Roly.
Once I had got over “Hear the Music” for 10a (it fits the clue perfectly) then all plain sailing. Very enjoyable, but then I happened to know all of the vocab. That will always cause debate, everyone thinks that the words they know are obvious, and has difficulty believing that anyone else could not know them. Similarly any word they do not know must be horribly obscure, otherwise they would know it. I dont think there is an easy answer, my particular beef is the 1930-50s films and music that I havnt the slightest intewrest in which seem to crop up quite frequently, so I fully understand Cedric’s view, if you have never seen The Addams Family, and have no interest in doing so then the characters are horribly obscure. Thanks to Mara and rolytoly.
7:07
No major issues – knew the THING though never watched the Addams Family. PDM with ‘that’ meaning of OZ – fortunately have heard the word ‘bonzer’ meaning something good, The two long ones across the middle held me up a little, before PERISHING went in as LOI. Didn’t know the back slang stuff, so thanks for the enlightenment, Roly.
Thanks also to Mara for the puzzle
And there I was, answering one clue after another like there was no tomorrow, when I took the wrong turning onto the home straight and entered Cobber in the space for 16d. This was a) the wrong answer and b) in the wrong place, and what a mess it made!
Mara’s ‘easiest for ages’ suddenly became more than just a touch difficult, especially when moving Cobber to 15d didn’t bring the expected relief. Needless to say, Wizard was comfortably my loi, in what felt like a very disappointing 18mins. More haste, less speed comes to mind.
CoD to the stand out Newsagent. Invariant
The wrong answer in the wrong place is absolute class. I salute you!
I do both on a regular enough basis, so I suppose they were bound to coincide one day 🙄
Tore through this, until I didn’t. A PB was on the cards until the WIZARD/ALIBI intersection almost doubled my time. I’ve never seen the film and simply don’t connect Wizard to Oz. Maybe I will now.
COD to NEWSAGENT .
All finished and parsed in 11:02
Lovely crossword, thanks Mara and Roly
I was heading for a fairly quick time until I got to the sw corner, where my last two ALIBI and finally WIZARD held me up for much longer than they should have. I couldn’t get DIGGER out of my head for the Bonzer bloke, which wasn’t helped by having DIG as the correct answer for 23ac. In the end ‘oh that oz’ finally dawned on me, and the clock was stopped at 9.38.
Yup, DIGGER stuck in my head too!
8:57 for me – I quite liked this puzzle, felt a bit different. However I thought WAGNERIAN was a bit crowbarred in to facilitate the cross referenced clue. LOI for me PERISHING
10:26
Another easy one. Breezed through this except for last 2. Haven’t seen The Adams Family and couldn’t parse ALIBI but nothing else made sense.
10:59
LOI WIZARD, didn’t understand the Bonzer bit.
All very straightforward and enjoyable
Thanks Mara and Roly
13 minutes all parsed – a good time for me for a Mara puzzle. Never seen the Addams Family but I had a vague recollection that it had a thing called Thing. Other than that nothing too obscure (for me anyway).
FOI – 1ac WASHING UP
LOI – 13ac ITCH
CODs – liked PUMPKIN and WIZARD
Thanks to Mara and Rolytoly
6:40, a top 10 time for me, a fun puzzle
I took the 11 in KNOW THE SCORE as referring to a team of footballers rather than a WAGNERIAN, but either works!
I was held up at the end because Id rushed to WAGNERIte without checking the anagrist, which made NEWSAGENT trickier than it should have been
Me too on KNOW THE SCORE! (Though I do think the right solution is better.)
Not quite a straight run through, but not far off! I did the puzzle in quadrants and it was all going swimmingly until I got to 17a. But IN THE LONG RUN, it all worked out fine. I even solved KNOW THE SCORE before going to 11d. Another good reason not to have cross references, especially if you have to solve a down clue before an across one – that would put the brakes on a clean sweep if you were going for one!
I was eating toast while solving and didn’t record a precise time, but it was certainly a speedy solve today. I liked COUTURE, THING and STET.
5.30 (approx) for A Very Good Day FOI Washing up LOI Tea COD Wizard
Thanks Mara and Roly
My thanks to Mara and rolytoly.
This was a QC, but I paused quite a lot with some of the clues.
21a Wet Suit, I liked the surface here. We used to refer to our boss as “the empty suit” , a nice insult. Never thought of wet though. COD.
4d Gandhi; I usually misspell him (or Indira), but here we were shown how it is spelt.
7d Winger. I’m glad we didn’t need to know anything about football as I don’t.
18d Thing, what a lovely name. I think I might have seen maybe 1 issue of the Addams family. My Mum used to reference a character called Trog (shortened from troglodyte, cave dweller) who was in a WW2 era radio program.
From WASHING UP to TEA in 17 minutes, here. Very pleased, although I had NHO ‘Bonzer’, initially mis-spelt GANDHI (as GhANDI) and totally failed to parse WIPE. Otherwise, all parsed and no breezeblocks.
Many thanks to Rolytoly and Mara.
I think the clues for Perishing + Bow-wow + wet-suit + newsagent made this hardest of the three this week for me.
On wavelength until iPad started misbehaving
Late to the party today.
10 in 20, 18 finally.
Pat for me now until we get a hard one.
Surprised to find myself in the top 100. Have never knowingly watched The Wizard of Oz of the Addams family. But I do like doing the washing up …
Thanks Mara and blogger
Time : 6:54
Same as everyone else except I seem to be the only person who tried KNOW THE ROPES and then wanted there to be a sailor beginning with W.
Otherwise all straightforward till ALIBI/WIZARD, where I was spinning around between digger/Bruce/g’day and so on, while having traumatic flashbacks to the first Test.
Got there for 07:38 and a Slowish Day. Still 😷 ridden.
Many thanks Mara and roly.
5.04 Surprisingly quick. I biffed COUTURE to finish. Thanks rolytoly and Mara.
11:04, so I had to work considerably harder than yesterday, needing to bring to mind a number of British usages — YOBBO, PERISHING for “cold”, NEWS AGENT, WINGER, and WIZARD (and NHO “bonzer”). “Separated by a common language…” has seldom seemed more apt.
Liked WET SUIT and BOW WOW best, and thought PUMPKIN amusing.
Thanks Mara and roly. The bit about back slang is fascinating.
Embarrassed to admit getting stuck on PUMPKIN (and I had the K!). Otherwise a slow, enjoyable plod around the grid until the inevitable breezeblock with LOI WIZARD. Got there eventually. No problems with STET, and rather liked NEWSAGENT. Thanks all.
Well the Addams family was a thing for the children long ago but I would never have remembered Thing, I just put the THING
in. Delighted with the blog for COUTURE which I did get but failed to parse. I asked AI if Bonzer = Wizard and it mumbled sort of!