Time: 10:56. No cryptic definitions from Juji to either speed up the solve or muddy the waters this week.
I found this to be a medium difficulty and enjoyable QC. I can usually take a stab at unfamiliar words or eventually make sense of a def which seems mystifying at first sight, but I had no idea about the 8a def. There were a few other pieces of tricky parsing, so certainly no complaints from me that this was “too easy”.
SUE and EMMA appear in the unchecked letters of two rows of the grid but I can’t see anything else to suggest a theme or Nina.
Thanks to Juji
Definitions underlined in bold, deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Bug home connected to separatist group (6) |
| INSECT – IN (‘home’) SECT (‘separatist group’) | |
| 4 | Cries horribly when pierced by tip of little bladed implement (6) |
| SLICER – Anagram (‘horribly’) of CRIES containing (‘pierced by’) L Good surface, if just a bit too graphic! |
|
| 8 | Organised rebrand for turkey farmer Matthews, say (7) |
| BERNARD – Anagram (‘Organised’) of REBRAND
Not too difficult to work out the answer but the def for this one meant nothing to me; unsurprisingly it turns out to be a UK-centric reference. Bernard Matthews (1930-2010) was an English businessman from Norfolk who founded Bernard Matthews Foods, well known for producing turkey products. The TV ad in which he appeared describing his turkey breast roast as “Bootiful” became an instantly recognisable part of the popular culture of the time according to Wikipedia. No disrespect to Bernard Matthews (RIP), but I suspect that when it became well-known, it was one of those ads which elicited a collective groan from those watching whenever it appeared on the TV. |
|
| 10 | Planned article by this writer written in papers (5) |
| AIMED – A (‘article’) then ME (‘this writer’) contained in (‘written in’) ID (‘papers’)
Sneaky one as ‘this writer’ could have been I or ME. The use of ‘written in’ rather than just ‘in’ as a containment indicator puzzled me for a start as well. |
|
| 11 | Overly large and small instruments (5) |
| TOOLS – TOO (‘Overly’) L (‘large’) S (‘small’) | |
| 12 | Game against bridge opponents is not off (7) |
| VENISON – V (‘against’) E N (‘bridge opponents’) IS ON (‘is not off’)
Good piece of misdirection. Yes, that sort of game and nothing to do with playing a game of cards. E and N standing for East and North as ‘bridge opponents’. |
|
| 13 | Told lad loudly to set down bright plant (9) |
| SUNFLOWER – SUN, aural wordplay (‘Told’) of SON (‘lad’) F (‘loudly’) LOWER (‘set down’)
Another one with a couple of confusing components, in this case either ‘told’ or ‘loudly’ as potential aural wordplay indicators. ‘Bright plant’? I suppose so as the large, yellow flower head looks very bright, the plant is named after something bright and I don’t see how ‘bright’ can be part of the wordplay. |
|
| 17 | Grief at destroyed naval vessel (7) |
| FRIGATE – Anagram (‘destroyed’) of GRIEF AT | |
| 19 | Contemptuously reject inducement close to corruption (5) |
| SPURN – SPUR (‘inducement’) |
|
| 20 | Stranger bringing Communist Party to the West (5) |
| ODDER – Reversal (‘to the West’) of both RED (‘Communist’) and DO (‘Party’) | |
| 21 | Turn from far side of embankment and pass water (7) |
| TWIDDLE – TWIDDLE for ‘turn’ as in “twiddle the radio knobs” though that’s not something you hear often these days. I was originally thinking of one of the 3-letter versions of ‘pass water’. |
|
| 22 | Time one stops working and clears up (6) |
| TIDIES – T (‘Time’) I (‘one’) DIES (‘stops working’) | |
| 23 | Ancient mangles oiled at regular intervals (3-3) |
| AGE-OLD – |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Very upset? That’s how the cookie crumbles (2,4) |
| IN BITS – ‘That’s how the cookie crumbles’ as a cryptic hint
‘Very upset?’ figuratively and possibly literally. I’m not 100% sure of the parsing of this one; probably not a double def though, as ‘that’s how the cookie crumbles’ isn’t a dictionary definition of IN BITS whereas ‘very upset’ is, at least in Oxford Dictionaries. |
|
| 2 | Earnest revelling in our misdeeds (7-6) |
| SERIOUS-MINDED – Anagram (‘revelling’) of IN OUR MISDEEDS
A nice contrast between def and wordplay. |
|
| 3 | Become ruder about rowers after loss in fifth place (7) |
| COARSEN – C (‘about’) OARS |
|
| 5 | Memorise last bit of carol on organ before November (5) |
| LEARN – |
|
| 6 | Visits we heard couple eventually accepts (5,6,2) |
| COMES AROUND TO – COMES AROUND (‘Visits’) then TO, aural wordplay (‘we heard’) of TWO (‘couple’) | |
| 7 | Maybe rat’s lair surrounded by rubbish (6) |
| RODENT – DEN (‘lair’) contained in (‘surrounded by’) ROT (‘rubbish’) | |
| 9 | Not totally justified, evil men threaten mischief (9) |
| DEVILMENT – Hidden (‘Not totally’) in |
|
| 14 | Cleaning part of leg in movement from side to side (7) |
| WASHING – SHIN (‘part of leg’) contained in (‘in’) WAG (‘movement from side to side’) | |
| 15 | Struggle climbing iron defensive structure (6) |
| EFFORT – EF, a reversal (‘climbing’) of FE (‘iron’) FORT (‘defensive structure’) | |
| 16 | Mean banks abandoning Japanese video game company (6) |
| INTEND – Banks usually don’t get a good press these days, as suggested by the surface reading. |
|
| 18 | Concur, taking part in beer games after reflection (5) |
| AGREE – Reverse hidden (‘taking part in… after reflection’) in |
|
11:16 here, faster than my average. Initially had SHINING for 14d, thinking “G” was a bit of a stretch for “movement from side to side”, but then SUNFLOWER came along to show me I was wrong.
Thanks to Juji and BR.
I found this tough -IN BITS, COARSEN, DEVILMENT. I note George Heard took nearly seven minutes, with one wrong, so there is some support for my theory.
We shall see…
14:26
17 minutes. My QC solving times have tanked since I returned to solving on paper so I am pleased to read that others found this tough.
16:34 so just under8 minutes quicker than my average. I spent 2 minutes on TIDIES which was my LOI. I saw COARSEN after the crossers but didn’t parse it, so thanks for the explanation.
I actually have fond memories of the Bernard Matthews ads and enjoyed the processed turkey. In retrospect it was dire, and he went on to Turkey Twizlers which were an abomination.
I was going to add, only to be exceeded in awfulness by Turkey Rashers which I find are from Mattessons and resemble old shoe leather.
I found this tough coming in at 20:02 more than double current average time. LOI TWIDDLE.
I seemed to have bucked the trend judging by the comments of some of the early posts as I found this one to be at the lower end of middling in difficulty.
I did think that BERNARD might prove rather obscure for those not in the UK (or under the age of about 40) but it was a write in for me.
Started with INSECT and finished with TOOL in 6.54.
Thanks to BR and Juji.
..not our favourite… rarely seem to get on with Juji. We made hard work of it.
NHO BERNARD. Hesitated with DEVILMENT. Unsure of COARSEN = become ruder. Slow to find an example where substitution worked.
Biffed Pontoon, it being both French bridge – pont and a game then of course couldn’t parse it.
So, we didn’t rocket along!
Thank you Juji for a definite workout and Bletchley Reject for showing us that it wasn’t so hard after all.
Another who found this on the chewy side, as it took me 13:44. I thought the rowers in 3D were OARS, and while this helped me get the answer I could not then parse the remaining letters C….EN. Very slow on my last two, COMES AROUND TO (it didn’t help that I would always say “comes round to”) and TWIDDLE, my LOI. But generally a bit of a struggle – the wavelength thing again no doubt.
Many thanks BR for the blog.
Had exactly the same prob with the oars(Men).
Slightly harder than average for me, though there were only two real hold ups – SUNFLOWER (don’t think I’ve encountered “told” as a homophone indicator before) and LOI COARSEN, which felt a bit 15ish when I finally got it.
On the other hand I grew up in Norwich and Bernard M was a client of my dad, so that was a write in! COD to VENISON.
All done in 08:01. Many thanks Juji and Bletchers.
18:15 Methinks J aimed and succeeded to take the P… I BIFD URINATE so didn’t come around to devilment and failed the ‘spot the venison’ game .
Ho Hum
Ta BRAJ
Thanks Bletchers for picking this one up on what should have been my blogging day.
Calling in from the fjords of New Zealand’s South Island 🇳🇿
Sounds doubtful …
…will require perseverance
Now you’re Bluff-ing
9:37
I am of the generation to remember the turkey advertisement (and the twizzlers) , so no problem with BERNARD.
Slight delay with COARSEN, as I initially tried to fit “eight” into the answer.
Another COD to VENISON.
Thanks to BR and Juji
Got off to a Flying start with INSECT and BERNARD and SLICER before slowing to a crawl. I pulled into the gate at 27 mins while admiring the carefully crafted puzzle which must have taken a long time to construct. Hat off to Juji.
COD DEVILMENT.
Thanks Bletch
15:00 for the solve. Chewier here too – probably like the turkey. We appear to be heading to the Christmas clues with reindeer yesterday.
As bad as Bernard was, the TV ads of the 80s are fondly remembered for their range of creativity especially the beer and cigar ads! Nowadays adverts are often voiced over foreign ones and the same old ones repeated over and over. Apart from all the Christmas ones of course – go Keira and Joe
Thanks to BR and Juji
6:50
No problem with BERNARD. I was slower with the long downs needing all but one checker to fill in each. Missed the C….EN parsing at 3d, simply assuming OARS rather than OARS{m}EN.
Thanks BR and Juji
After an hour and a half it’s time to throw in the towel. Give up on the last three (AIMED difficult, visit = COME AROUND dubious, correctly ‘come round’, SLICER both difficult and obscure), with three more unparsed (shin in wag! QC?!). Thanks and well done, BR.
Agree, VENISON both good and clever.
While I was slow to get WASHING myself, I think it’s a perfectly good QC clue. The def is “cleanING” which suggests but doesn’t guarantee an -ING ending. There’s not that many parts of a leg to choose from – ankle, knee, calf, quad, shin and I got fixated on ham(string). WAG is less spottable but very parseable as it’s what dogs’ tails do. And cleaning=washing is also clear.
Note the clue for COMES AROUND TO has a pluralised “visitS”; so while you mention visit=come around as dubious – you’ve sort of undermined your own case there.
Thanks for that! First point: I agree it’s a perfectly good clue, it was only the Q I was questioning. Second: you’re right; if I change my comment to “COMES AROUND dubious, correctly COMES ROUND”, may I get away with it?
Some version of “My mum comes around my house often” seems to work
Ah … ok then, if you say so. I’d never say that, but then we’re all different and that’s fair enough. Thanks.
Found this tricky in parts. No problem with Bernard Matthews but aware he’s highly unlikely to be known by younger solvers. SUNFLOWER and COMES ROUND TO my L2I. Thanks BR and Juji.
24.21 which is around my usual time.
I couldn’t parse AIMED and wondered if I’M ED might stand for ‘this writer’ or COARSEN where, liked Cedric, I had oars for rowers so thank you BR for shedding light on these.
Old enough to remember Bootiful Bernard.
Thanks Juji.
ID=papers is a relatively frequent bit of wordplay – worth remembering #5. Decent time on a slightly tougher puzzle 👍
19:05 – fairly average time for me. Liked BERNARD – BOOTIFUL! Biffed a couple as usual, but plodded steadily through for the most part.
Just under 30 mins.
Enjoyed this. Nothing too difficult for me although some clues needed thought. I did see the hidden for once.
COD VENISON
Thanks BR and Juji.
Rather slow on the RHS, not helped by some bad guesses pencilled in. A bad guess on LHS too, Coarser instead of COARSEN. And then, shining instead of WASHING. LOI SUNFLOWER. Other late solves included DEVILMENT, TWIDDLE, (Major ER at widdle, old-fashioned slang) and SPURN.
Liked VENISON, SERIOUS MINDED. Good hidden. Thanks vm, BR. Parsing of 1d seemed OK as young women sometimes say they are IN BITS and cookies crumble into crumbs.(!) Good one.
I enjoyed this fairly straightforward puzzle, but with some nice misdirection such as VENISON to keep me on my toes. Failed to parse COARSEN, as I had oars, and TWIDDLE made me smile.
A good, though testing, puzzle for me. I enjoyed it and stopped worrying about my time as I jumped around the grid and made steady progress.
Juji still confuses me – my times have varied from very low double figures to mid-twenties. This one took me 17.55.
I especially enjoyed SERIOUS MINDED, VENISON, TWIDDLE, and my LOI COARSEN.
Thanks to both. Now to brave the rain and wind and explore the delights of Lincoln and its Cathedral again.
From INSECT to TIDIES in 7:57. A biffed URINATE was corrected by COMES AROUND TO. Knew the turkey magnate. Thanks Juji and BR.
18:06
Definitely not on the wavelength today as I ground my way through this one, finishing in 26 minutes. I was held up for some time by 2dn and 22ac until I decided that my biff of ‘tubas’ at 11ac couldn’t be right. Didn’t parse AIMED and should have got TIDIES much quicker.
FOI – 1ac INSECT
LOI – 11ac TOOLS
COD – 1dn IN BITS
Thanks to Juji and BR
After completing the NW corner in double quick time I thought this was going to be a breeze. I was wrong. I was brought to a standstill by the intersecting clues VENISON, DEVILMENT, SPURN, WASHING and my LOI TWIDDLE. Crawled home in 10:05 Thanks BR
I found this one on the hard side, coming in at 16:56. Struggled mightily with TWIDDLE, not least because when I first encountered the clue, the checking letters supported “urinate”.
Thank you for the blog!
16:04
I really enjoyed this, lots of great clues but more because I know 6 months ago I would never have been able to solve this – so another big thank you to the bloggers and all who comment and help.
Two unparsed today, AIMED and VENISON – thanks BR
FOI: INSECT
LOI: TWIDDLE (as TC & Wombat, my first thought was URINATE)
COD: IN BITS (it made me smile)
Thanks to Juji and BR
13:25, an average time for me but felt longer as I struggled to get going. As is often the case the down clues were more helpful (are they really or am I tuning in to the setter by then?) and the answers started to flow, steadily if not rapidly.
LOI is also my CoD, TWIDDLE.
Thanks BR and Juji
11.28.
On the tougher side of average as far as I’m concerned, although one or two seem to have recorded their normal times. I was even paced throughout finishing in 12.29, with BERNARD going straight in with memories of ‘bootiful’ Bernie who always fronted his own television adverts, at least I always assumed it was him.
10.57 DNF with a careless TIDIED. That’s especially annoying because I carefully parsed all the tricky ones. LOI VENISON. Thanks BR and Juji.
East and North are not both opponents. It’s a pairs game.
I found this very difficult. I only managed four in 20 minutes. When I started with the reveal and trying to work out the parsing there was more than just the one mer.
Sorry to be pedantic.
N & S are a pair.
E & W are a pair.
N is an opponent of both E & W.
S ditto.
E is an opponent of both N & S.
W ditto.
To be really, really, really pedandic all four of them are opponents of somebody, just not necessarily of each other. E and N are both opponents, E is an opponent of S&N, N is an opponent of E&W. All four of them are opponents, just not necessarily of each other.
So E & N are opponents in a game of bridge, as are E/S, W/N, W/S.
I had the same experience as Cedric and Alto_ego with COARSEN, and just took it on trust.
I did get through in two passes, but was slower than usual to see things which should have perhaps been obvious.
Off to enjoy my BERNARD Matthews Cheese and Ham Turkey Escalope…..
FOI BERNARD
LOI COMES AROUND TO
COD VENISON
TIME 4:56
19:20
Well I made a mess of that. Put pontoon for the game which must have been subliminally suggested by having bridge in the clue and urinate for pass water. Only after realising the down clues were impossible did I go back and get VENISON (oh, that sort of game) and TWIDDLE. LOI an unconvincing AIMED.
About average for difficulty, and enjoyable
Liked VENISON and TWIDDLE
Thanks Juji and BR
Can somebody explain bridge opponents? I still don’t get it.
Sorry for the repitition, but this will actually get emailed to Rob, whilst he is unlikely to come here again for enlightenment.
N & S are a pair.
E & W are a pair.
N is an opponent of both E & W.
S ditto.
E is an opponent of both N & S.
W ditto.
DOH: I forgot to say you sit opposite your partner in Bridge, so the points of the compass are a useful analogy.
I think you’ve made my point perfectly. The clue is ambiguous. Each compass point has two opponents and one partner, so one’s opponents would be N&S or E&W. When defending your opponent could be either the point to your left or to your right, and you could be any one of the four points.
In bridge (the card game) notation, North and South play against East and West. ie your partner sits opposite you at the table.
So N is an opponent of E.
sorry, didn’t see your answer when I posted.
Not at all, at least you had the sense to reply to Rob directly! (which I had obviously intended to do).
Dnf…
Thought this was very chewy, with lots of potential distraction. Both my answers of “Urinate” for 21ac and “Pontoon” for 12ac had to be scrapped. In the end, I got the 6dn and 10ac axis wrong, putting “Cedes Ground To” and “Aided” to respectively, the latter which I could have made a valid argument for with relevant parsing. Still enjoyable though.
FOI – 1ac “Insect”
LOI – 21ac “Twiddle”
COD – 12ac “Venison”
Thanks as usual!
25:08, heavens, I was so stuck and finally put in IN BITS without much conviction, I’ve never seen it for “upset”, and I suppose I lacked imagination. Too bad I didn’t accept my fate (as I thought) sooner. It didn’t help that 8a BERNARD was also a guess, though no alternative came to mind. But my real crime was biffing OBOES at 11a and letting it sit there far too long.
I liked SLICER and INTEND for the surfaces, as well as VENISON, though the V for against is new to me so held me up. I lost my eyebrows over “bright” in the SUNFLOWER clue. So unnecessary and so misleading. I pass over TWIDDLE in silence as befits a lady.
Thanks Juji and Bletch.
Very ladylike and to be commended.
Got there in the end – 44 minutes. Found it fairly difficult – nothing unheard of but had to work hard on some of the clues, especially SUNFLOWER, COARSEN, AIMED and COME AROUND TO. Thanks Juji and BR.
This (V)SCC resident found it hard but ultimately doable. I liked WASHING, seemed a very good QC clue (WAG + SHIN) though it took a bit of time to get there.
Surprised so few comments about TWIDDLE. Are we really all so old that we are happy to twiddle radio knobs and go off for a widdle. Very old language? Or language of the very old??
This took me forever! Quite liked attempting a QC that seemed very different in style. Thanks Juji. I read ‘bright planet’ so SUNFLOWER was a bit of a surprise 😆 Failed to spot the hidden in DEVILMENT. VENISON biffed then cautiously parsed. I rather liked SLICER. Thanks BR.
35 mins to finish. I usually throw in the towel before then but was engaged and knew the answers were on the periphery of my understanding.
LOIs serious minded, Twiddle & Sunflower (not helped by having CoarseR
Thanks Juji and BR
Well done to the expert solvers 👏
A disappointing 15 minutes (week already ruined after yesterday’s DNF).
4 or 5 short on 15 x 15 (1.5 hours!!!).
I was out all day so only had a few minutes before I went and finished off later. I found this laborious rather than difficult but they were all struggle-through-able. Thanks to Juji and BR. I really really didn’t like Bernard, one of the stated objectives of QC was to bring in new people, you won’t attract many with that. I am probably biased as almost all of my tv watching has been live sport and films. I have a grudging sympathy with references to hundred year old films as “classics” (only to your generation, not mine, I am only 70), but to be required to remember the (unmentioned) first name of the presenter of a half century old factory-farm ad is surely scraping right through the bottom of the barrel. (It was obvious from the anagrist, but even so)
Horrendous, horrible, hogwash!