Hope you all enjoyed Heron’s first appearance here. Not sure if it’s a new setter or just a new moniker. Maybe some of you will recognise a familiar style?
So how difficult was it? I won’t venture an opinion after learning once again that such arbitrary assessments are not always well received!
Instead we’ll just look forward to your comments. Please let us know how you went.
(In the clues, definitions are underlined and anagram indicators are in bold italics. In the explanations (ABC)* indicates an anagram of abc. Deletions and other devices are indicated accordingly, I hope).
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Disturbances behind customs (8) |
| RUMPUSES – RUMP (behind) + USES (customs) | |
| 6 | Formerly operating by borders of Chile (4) |
| ONCE – ON (operating) + CE (“borders” of ChilE) | |
| 8 | Touch upon an objection (4) |
| ABUT – A (an) + BUT (objection)
On edit after Merlin’s comment: it parses more cleanly without the separation, ie “an objection” = A BUT. |
|
| 9 | Approve arrangement of red cacti (8) |
| ACCREDIT – (RED CACTI)* | |
| 10 | Gate-crasher at home beginning to turn more insolent (8) |
| INTRUDER – IN (at home) + T (beginning to Turn) + RUDER (more insolent) | |
| 12 | Noisily cycled in street (4) |
| ROAD – Homophone (noisily) of RODE (cycled) | |
| 13 | Cool down one hot meal (6) |
| CHILLI – CHILL (cool down) + I (one) | |
| 16 | Pull over fire-breather (6) |
| DRAGON – DRAG (pull) + ON (over) | |
| 17 | Dithering ref initially tolerates worry (4) |
| FRET – (REF)* + T (initially Tolerates) | |
| 18 | Father mixed tonic a little bit (8) |
| FRACTION – FR (father) + (TONIC A)* | |
| 21 | Speak against poetry (8) |
| CONVERSE – CON (against) + VERSE (poetry) | |
| 22 | Glen primarily drinks beer (4) |
| DALE – D (primarily Drinks) + ALE (beer) | |
| 23 | Place to eat dog’s dinner? (4) |
| MESS – Double Definition | |
| 24 | Mistrusts factions holding competitive advantage (8) |
| SUSPECTS – SECTS (factions) “holding” USP (competitive advantage)
Despite obtaining a (completely useless) marketing degree many decades ago, I had no idea what was going on here until I googled post-solve. USP = Unique Selling Proposition, a feature or quality that sets (or is claimed to set) a product apart from its opposition. |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Doff tip of headgear in town (5) |
| URBAN – Remove the first letter of (doff tip of) |
|
| 3 | Remove stones from mine (3) |
| PIT – Double Definition
First one’s a verb, second one’s a noun. |
|
| 4 | Reportedly remained sober (5) |
| STAID – Homophone (reportedly) of STAYED (remained) | |
| 5 | Tied up dog in plant (7) |
| SECURED – CUR (dog) in SEED (plant)
I assume we’re looking at the verb sense of seed = plant, but are planting and seeding the same thing? Maybe there’s enough overlap in the metaphorical usage of the two words? Or more likely I’m missing something. |
|
| 6 | Contrive to veer car — go too far (9) |
| OVERREACT – (TO VEER CAR)* | |
| 7 | Fashionable turn around a city (7) |
| CHICAGO – CHIC (fashionable) + GO (turn) “around” A
American cities (and states) have great names. |
|
| 11 | Organise versatile family members (9) |
| RELATIVES – (VERSATILE)* | |
| 14 | What has an effect on body involved in cash or moneylending? (7) |
| HORMONE – Hidden (involved) in casH OR MONEylending | |
| 15 | Explains how schools might be arranged? (7) |
| INFORMS – Double definition, the second one slightly cryptic. | |
| 19 | Stadiums without northern zones (5) |
| AREAS – ARE |
|
| 20 | Yellow lettuce conceals baby animal (5) |
| OWLET – Hidden in (conceals) yellOW LETtuce | |
| 22 | Colour fade picked up (3) |
| DYE – Homophone (picked up) of DIE (fade)
New solvers often struggle with deciding which is the solution and which is the sound-alike in these clues. It’s pretty clear here, with the definition for DYE at the start of the clue and the homophone indicator firmly attached to the definition for DIE. |
|
Heron has indeed waded in with a tough start to the week for me. I slowed down with Rumpuses, Abut and Urban. Enjoyable still. Thanks Galspray and Heron.
This was a pretty good puzzle, and I would have done better if I had not biffed oversteer. If there’s one thing an experienced solver should know, it is not to pay any attention to the surface of a clue. I also managed to overlook the hidden, as usual, and I had no idea what USP was. None of this slowed me down too much.
Time: 8:32
7:40
Like Vinyl, I overlooked the hidden OWLET (POI), and dnk USP. A MER at seed=plant.
7:37. Had a lot of wrong guesses first, like ‘cycling’ would actually involve cycling, ‘advantages’ would be EDGES, etc etc.
I always thought USP is Unique Selling Point, but the dictionaries have Proposition too. I’m surprised to find it dates from as far back as the 1950s.
18 minutes. I did badly before hitting my stride. I must have read 5 or 6 clues before an answer jumped out at me and then I nodded off, waking to find only two answers in the grid. Even when I got going I felt like I was solving online for the first time, constantly overwriting correct letters already entered and letting the cursor take me in the wrong direction. Scrolling up and down between the keypad and the grid led to more errors. A very poor effort from me.
The puzzle seemed fine but I can’t keep up with all these new setters. How many in total are active now, I wonder?
By my count Heron is the 9th new name this year alone – after City, Dangle, Jetlag, Juji, Kybos, Loon, Shay and Tango. Not counting a few puzzles from Richard Rogan early in the year, drawn from his back catalogue, I think we now have 33 active setter names, though I’m not sure if Kenny (who hasn’t appeared this year) is still active.
Of course some setters may use a number of different names – otherwise a stable of nearly 3 dozen setters suggests our crossword editor believes in safety in numbers.
Thanks, Cedric. I don’t have access to my personal archive at this moment but from memory I’m pretty sure that Kenny was one of RR’s squad, and the name was taken from someone associated with his NI football team.
The online solving sometimes leaves me hopelessly bumbling all over the grid like that. I’ve improved a bit after deciding to warm up daily with the concise where I keep better focus on the physical skills.
Couldn’t solve the NW corner, RUMPUSES/URBAN/ABUT
I didn’t like A=AN for ABUT, that felt clunky, and didn’t think much of “doff tip of” for an indication to remove the initial letter for TURBAN.
COD MESS
To be fair to the setter I probably should have written the parsing as “an objection” = A BUT rather than separating the parts.
I think A for AN and vice versa is standard stuff even when treated separately because they perform the same function. I saw another example in one of the four Times / ST puzzles I solved over the weekend.
Agreed, but in this case the parsing is definitely “nicer” when taken as a whole.
Surely “A” and “An” are probably the only two words in the english language that do have absolutely exactly the same meaning? I am sure someone more learned than I will point out any differences, but I cant think of any.
Add me to the list of strugglers in the NW (i.e. Rumpuses/Urban/Abut).
Those clues seem acceptably fair to me in hindsight, but tough to have them intersecting.
9:44. A hard 1a to start with but then the answers went in regularly enough. I’ve came across USP elsewhere in crossword land but have rarely heard it used in real life. Managed to spot the hiddens after missing a few lately and liked the idea of the OWLET snuggled up in the lettuce.
Thanks to galspray and thanks and welcome to Heron
14:46. Puzzle solving when I first wake up is possibly not my brightest move. For some reason I thought that schools might be arranged ‘interms’. Consequently FRACTION took a while to appear whilst RUMPUSES took even longer. Failed to parse SUSPECTS.
Thought this was a nice puzzle, thanks both.
Back from a short holiday – thank you Dvynys for blogging Saturday’s QC for me – and a good start to the week with a 9:36 completion. Would have been even faster but my L2I, URBAN then ABUT, held me up – I got the wordplay in 2D horribly wrong and was looking for a word meaning doff or take off, constructed by putting an H (“tip of headgear”) into a 4 letter town starting with U. Not surprisingly, no joy with that!
Many thanks Galspray for the blog and welcome to Heron.
Didn’t finish, found really hard for a quick cryptic. Not helped by the fact that to start with I put the answer to 6d in the spaces for 9a! But even after I corrected that I was floundering. Top left corner apart from urban, and actually most of the right side floored me. And just as I was finding I could almost complete the Quick.
Don’t let it discourage you, my performance bounces all over the place all the time. If you found URBAN easy you’re doing better there than many of us commenting today.
From PIT to FRET in 8:50. URBAN and RUMPUSES took some thought. Thanks Heron and Galspray.
A fine debut from Heron which I felt I made hard work of.
I tried to anagram ‘veer car go’ for OVERREACT and I transposed a couple of letters in RELATIVES, making CHILLI impossible until I spotted my mistake. RUMPUSES was also tricky to work out.
Started with ONCE and finished with FRET in 8.04.
Thanks to Galspray and Heron.
17:05. One suspects one shouldn’t fret or overreact over rumpuses but I’m afraid one did.
Ta HAG
I found the puzzle straightforward, refused to rush, and toddled through in 12.40 all correct and almost all parsed. An enjoyable start to the week.
Many thanks to Heron for a good, nicely pitched, first QC.
3:42. Nice one Heron. No difficulties for me. LOI URBAN after RUMPUSES. I had the pleasure of meeting our new setter in York in October – she and her husband were on our quiz team along with Astonvilla1. She has had a long wait for her first appearance. A great start – I’m looking forward to the next one. Thank-you Heron and galspray.
Biffed Rumpuses, my LOI. Don’t think I’d have parsed it no matter how long I’d tried. Excellent puzzle though.
Couldn’t see anything at first – FOI INTRUDER – but it turned into a good puzzle. Stuck on NW, then Mrs M kindly produced URBAN which unlocked the rest. LOI SECURED. Mystified by the factions holding competitive advantage, thank you, Galspray.
Only heard of USP as Unique Selling Point in programmes like the Apprentice. MER at SEED=PLANT but if a lawn is seeded, it is planted with grass seed, so I think acceptable. Liked the image of the hidden OWLET. Enjoyable QC. Thanks Heron and Galspray.
10:41 – IMO a perfectly pitched QC – welcome heron
13:41 but with one pink square for a mistyped CHIGAGO.
A definite MER at seed=plant. Sowing seeds and planting plants are two different activities.
Thanks Galspray and Heron
A bit too hard for me, failing on SUSPECTS, RUMPUSES, URBAN . First failure for ages. Gloom.
Technical DNF ( used check letter twice).
In retrospect it was straightforward, but I made a 26min meal of this.
I, too, looked for a word to cycle round, not realising that noisily was a homophone indicator in 12ac.
Took an age to see the hidden HORMONE, although I was chuffed to spot the hidden OWLET straight away.
Spotted the chestnut MESS immediately, but then it took several minutes to get the equally frequent CHILLI and PIT.
I thought plant = seed was OK. “I planted (carrot) seeds” or “I seeded some (carrots)” are phrases I use.
An enjoyable QC, but it did feel hard for a Monday.
Thanks galspray and Heron.
I found the NW Trio very tough. Even after RUMPUSES emerged I was parsing 2d as Cedric had (H for “tip of headgear” going into a four letter city starting with U) and went round that buoy for a long while.
Other than it was fairly standard, but those three added several minutes. Limped home in 10:20 for a Mondayish Day. COD to PIT.
Many thanks Heron and Gallers.
Looking at some of the times posted so far I think I must have been on song finishing in 7.05. No real difficulties, although I had to correct the biffed OVERREACH for 6dn which fortunately meant only changing the last letter. I was happy enough with SUSPECTS but couldn’t remember what the USP represented. A good start to the week and a very decent first offering from Heron.
6.19
RUMPUSES: crikey! LOI and also struggled with the w/p for URBAN. But personally loved the puzzle, though (possibly because) it was on the tougher side. Nice start Heron and thanks Galspray.
Hello to Heron! A bifftastic morning for me, and I needed the blog to parse URBAN, having copied Cedric’s problem of getting the wordplay completely wrong. All green in 13:41.
Thank you for the blog!
URBAN and ABUT added many minutes… thankfully we stayed out of the SCC, it loomed however.
Like many, in retrospect not difficult, though we at times, made it so.
Slow to get DALE (unhelpfully biffed VALE)
Needed the blog for RUMPUSES (NHO USP) and am missing USES = customs? Am I the only one 🤷🏻♀️?
Welcome HERON – a delightful puzzle, thank you GALSPRAY – helpful blog.
DNF. Like others, was stuck on RUMPUSES and URBAN, but, after revealing those, I managed ABUT. Took a while to get going, then I thought I was doing OK, but on return to the NW, I found I was still lost.
Saw the hidden HORMONE and OWLET. Also liked DYE, DALE, ONCE, CHICAGO, & FRACTION.
Many thanks, Galspray. Welcome, Heron, who landed a few fish today.
DNF
Breezed through in 13 mins but couldn’t see RUMPUSES. Spent 5 minutes without getting anywhere and having had no success with an alphabet trawl gave up and just entered a random word that for the checkers, in this case purposes.
My thanks to Heron and galspray.
I thought this one was tricky and doubted I would finish for a bit.
Tried to put the answer to 23a into 22a, fortunately it didn’t match the checks.
24a Suspects. HHO USP as Point rather than Proposition, and that was in real life.
22d Dye, I was quite prepared to learn I had picked the wrong homophone here, but I was OK.
I’m another who dawdled over the NW corner, having raced through the rest of the puzzle. URBAN unlocked it all, and RUMPUSES followed immediately.
All complete and parsed before the cuppa was cold. Thanks Heron for a fun puzzle and Galspray for the blog.
Very enjoyable debut. Thanks Heron and galspray. As a bid manager for a software house I endured many poinless meetings with people endlessly asking me what our USP was – very difficult to think of one for a software house.
21:56
Those now famous 3 in the NW corner dragged me into the SCC, but no complaints.
Both URBAN and PIT went in unparsed. I now understand URBAN (thanks galspray) but not PIT – can someone explain the verb? Pit is a fruit stone and a mine, both nouns or to pit/set against – verbs. What have I missed?
FOI: ONCE
LOI: URBAN
COD: DRAGON (the PDM made me smile)
Thanks to Heron and galspray
Removing the stone from e.g. an olive is called pitting them to pit, verb, to remove the stone (pit) from a fruit.
Ah! – Thanks Ham
Like others, stuck on RUMPUSES and URBAN.
Agree, tricky in the NW, but a lovely QC. LOI URBAN, after RUMPUSES and ABUT respectively. No problems with USP and rather liked SUSPECTS. Came up with ROAD straight away but then spent a while considering whether ‘noisily’ was a homophone indicator or not… One to remember. Welcome Heron and thanks galspray.
16 mins…
I didn’t find Heron’s first offering too bad, although my LOI 14dn “Hormones” seemed to take an age to spot. As above, I wondered whether seed and plant are the same thing, but the answer couldn’t have been anything else. Weirdly, I thought of “Rumpuses” for 1ac before I got anywhere near the parsing.
FOI – 3dn “Pit”
LOI – 14dn “Hormones”
COD – 1ac “Rumpuses”, although 1dn “Urban” was a close second.
Thanks as usual!
39:55 for the solve. Please disregard anything I wrote on Saturday about competence. I am struggling to imagine what went through the setter’s mind when they thought it a good idea to introduce themselves with 1A
Tee-hee, probably…
Okay, I’ve reclassified you among the incompetent (jk). But couldn’t you simply pass off your time as an encouraging example generously provided for new solvers?
Too much Grinch in me yesterday after that debacle. Very upset I was 🤣
RUMPUSES last in, otherwise went well, convincing self that DALE was’vale’ didn’t help
Like others, I lingered too long in the NW corner – even after URBAN and ABUT occurred to me, I couldn’t get RUMP, though I’d suspected USES (thought of PURPOSES, too). Eventually, having dug out RUMPUSES, it confirmed LOI PIT, which I couldn’t parse. A clever device to have a DD with different parts of speech i.e. a verb and a noun. Good fun, thanks, Gallers and Heron.
Just a note to add that today’s 15×15 is fairly accessible. Not ultra easy but definitely worth a go if anyone is in the mood. (Spoken as one trying to consistently cross the divide between quickie and biggie)
Are you kidding ? It took me 23.03, and I found it quite a challenge.
Thank you and welcome Heron: you drove me back into the SCC where the wild rumpus started (with all those Wild Things). My problem with 1a was behind – I was for ages convinced that it had to be after, and disturbances on the rugby pitch are often called ‘afters’, so I puzzled (in vain) for ages to find the word. Only when I took the T off turban and got the PIT did RUMPUSES reveal themselves! The hiddens were neat and the anagrams eminently solvable, so a very enjoyable puzzle: COD for me was INTRUDER which made me smile. But CHICAGO was quite fun too. Nearly 30 minutes!
11.56 Mostly quick but a typo in OWLET slowed down DALE and I was very slow to spot ABUT, RUMPUSES and URBAN at the end. Thanks galspray and Heron.
Like others here I struggled with the NW corner. The rest of the puzzle was straightforward but I didn’t persist with RUMPUSES, URBAN and ABUT so a DNF.
We found that quite challenging and were very glad to get through in 14:41. It will be no surprise to most that it was the three in the NW which provided most of the hold up. There were several which seemed tougher than usual though once you’ve seen them they mostly look within the normal run of the mill. A MER at USES for customs though. Welcome, Heron, anyway and thanks too to Galspray.
I couldn’t get started in the NW corner, so I moved elsewhere, whizzed around the rest of the grid and arrived back there just 17 minutes later (very fast for me). Trouble was that my three remaining clues – RUMPUSES, URBAN and ABUT – withstood everything I threw at them and I gave up 20 minutes later. Outcome = DNF.
URBAN and ABUT were completely beyond me and I still can’t see why customs = USES in 1a. Too clever by half, IMHO. Pity, because those three clues (especially as they were interlinked) spoilt what was otherwise a very enjoyable puzzle.
Many thanks to Galspray.
The same problem as others with the NW corner. The remainder was completed in around 20 minutes but those 3 dragged me deep into the SCC at 27 minutes.
FOI – 6ac ONCE
LOI – 8ac ABUT
COD- 23ac MESS
Thanks to Heron and Galspray
My post didn’t work earlier.
10 in 20, 14 in 30, blank NW corner.
Proposition if selling a service, point if selling a product? Here’s another TLA from sales and marketing, PST…
19:43, but with use of aids to dig out RUMPUSES and URBAN.
Thanks to Heron and galspray.
18:06 and Heron is very welcome. The sly RUMPUSES and URBAN had me well and truly stuck, like so many others, in the NW corner. The rest came easily enough, with a hiccup at OVERREACT where I was stuck on the notion that E belonged at the end. And of course no idea about USP, so had to give up on thinking of words containing “edge” and wait for informative crossers to get SUSPECTS. I thought the clues were high quality, but will give COD to RUMPUSES, which had me thinking “rump uses??? rum puses????? what nonsense!”
Thanks Heron and galspray.
Failed on Abut and Hormone. Should have remembered Cuarists 3rd law, if the clue doesn’t make sense, look for the hidden. Thanks Heron and Galspray