Time: 6 minutes. I hesitate to say this was easy as other solvers may not have found it so, but it’s certainly at the easier end of the range that we’ve experienced recently. Note: If you finish early and have time on your hands the 15×15 is worth a punt today.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Negligent with regard to teacher (6) |
| REMISS – RE (with regard to), MISS (teacher) | |
| 4 | Dad grabbing an old lady’s hat (6) |
| PANAMA – P~A (dad) containing [grabbing] AN, then MA (old lady) | |
| 8 | Similar writing (13) |
| CORRESPONDING – Two meanings | |
| 10 | Criticise a head of state caught in corruption (5) |
| ROAST – A + S{tate} [head of…] contained by [caught in] RO~T (corruption) | |
| 11 | Others had to report again (7) |
| RESTATE – REST (others), ATE (had) | |
| 13 | Tears prey to pieces for bit of extra fat? (5,4) |
| SPARE TYRE – Anagram [to pieces] of TEARS PREY. Slang for middle-age spread, beer-belly etc. | |
| 17 | Some congressman delayed African president (7) |
| MANDELA -Hidden in [some] {congress}MAN DELA{yed} | |
| 18 | The Speaker’s delightful set of rooms (5) |
| SUITE – Aural wordplay [the speaker’s] “sweet” (delightful) | |
| 19 | TV show, one that’s very like another (8,5) |
| SPITTING IMAGE – Two meanings, although the first was actually derived from the second | |
| 21 | Expel from French harbour (6) |
| DEPORT – DE (from in French), PORT (harbour) | |
| 22 | Aloof station controller (6) |
| REMOTE – Two meanings, the second as in TV remote | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Best ever album? (6) |
| RECORD – Two meanings | |
| 2 | Serious wrongdoing? Unfortunately it’s normal (6,3) |
| MORTAL SIN – Anagram [unfortunately] of IT’S NORMAL | |
| 3 | Track broadcast, did you say? (5) |
| SCENT – Aural wordplay [did you say?] “sent” (broadcast) | |
| 5 | Many set free in general pardon (7) |
| AMNESTY – Anagram [free] of MANY SET | |
| 6 | Boxer appearing in tabloid periodically (3) |
| ALI – {t}A{b}L{o}I{d} [appearing in…periodically] | |
| 7 | Fisherman in position on river (6) |
| ANGLER – ANGLE (position), R (river) | |
| 9 | China police ran off (9) |
| PORCELAIN – Anagram [off] of POLICE RAN | |
| 12 | Coffee from Buffalo Bill country? No (9) |
| AMERICANO – AMERICA (Buffalo Bill country), NO | |
| 14 | Person helping a superior (7) |
| ABETTER – A, BETTER (superior) | |
| 15 | In the morning editor keeps us entertained (6) |
| AMUSED – AM (in the morning) ~ ED (editor) contains [keeps] US | |
| 16 | Cut off European? That’s extreme (6) |
| SEVERE – SEVER (cut off), E (European) | |
| 18 | Polish Republican leaving place of worship (5) |
| SHINE – SH{r}INE (place or worship), [Republican leaving…] | |
| 20 | Current prime minister from down under? A troublemaker (3) |
| IMP – I (current) then PM (prime minister) reversed [from down under] | |
Yes, a very nice puzzle on the less challenging side of the scale. I was on for a fast time until held up by AMERICANO – needed the O checker at the end – and then finally by SCENT. I’m not sure why that one took so long, but neither track = scent nor broadcast = scent seemed at all obvious … until suddenly they did.
10:21 for the completion; many thanks Jack for the blog.
6:42
Like Cedric, I was moving along nicely until held up by LOI SCENT. And held up for a long time, including a desultory alphabet trawl (can a trawl be desultory?): SH_, SL_… but not SC_.
Like the two preceding commenters, I got stuck on one word; not scent, not Americano, but remote. I whipped through the whole puzzle in five minutes until I came to that. I spent nearly two minutes staring at _ E _ O _ E before seeing the obvious.
Time: 6:59
Same! I’d completed the whole thing apart from this one. I do like the clue, once I’d seen the answer. Probably my COD even though it scuppered me!
2:40. Lucky to be on the wavelength for a PB, although I doubted it because SCENT held me up like it did others–didn’t think of it until coming back to it for the third time and needed all crossers. Not much to comment on otherwise except that ‘abettor’ looks more natural.
Scorchio!
🙂
Wow that’s QUICK!!
7:14. Pleasant puzzle which I felt I could have solved more quickly though I was stopped in my tracks by AMERICANO. I was then left with _E_O_E at the end too but managed to spot it without too much frustration. I liked the MORTAL SIN surface which I can’t remember having seen before.
Thanks to Pipsqueak and Jack
Like others I was held up by SCENT and before that by ROAST. Needed that final T to finally get SCENT. Also enjoyed seeing MORTAL SIN emerge from ‘it’s normal’. Generally built from the bottom up to finish not all green in 10.11. Solved PANAMA, wrote PANAMA then weirdly decided it must be ‘nan’ not ‘ma’ from the clue so altered to panana – banana with a P. Can’t explain it. Brains are weird.
The two that did for me were REMOTE and RESTATE. I couldn’t square HAD with ATE and wasted a lot of time trying to justify it. Hence a slow time for me.
Would have been humming but for REMOTE and SCENT, the latter we still don’t quite see. A dog will track a scent, but cannot get to TRACK=SCENT. What are we missing?
Thank you Jackkt and Pipsqueak
I read it as in ‘to follow the scent’ being equivalent to ‘follow the trail/track’.
The ODE gives:
A trail indicated by the characteristic smell of an animal and perceptible to hounds or other animals: the hound followed the scent.
Trail=Track – is good enough for me in a crossword.
Ah, thank you! : )
I’m another in the ‘held up by scent’ club.
Started with REMISS and finished with SCENT in 4.16.
Thanks to Jack and Pipsqueak
No problem with SCENT (given the T of ROAST) but my LOI SEVERE held me up a little before I finished, all parsed, in 12.50. Slow for some but OK for me. COD REMOTE but MORTAL SIN was the best of the anagrams.
A nice start to the week and a proper QC.
Thanks to Pipsqueak and jackkt.
I seemed to be haunted by vowels today being held up in the SE where the crossers were four Es, two As and one I. AMERICANO provided an O and then REMOTE an E to leave me staring at an unhelpful three Es for, at last, SEVERE.
All complete in 30 minutes as, although many clues flew in, others such as SCENT and REMOTE took quite a bit of working out.
Thanks Pipsqueak and Jack.
For some reason, it seemed to take me ages to find a way into this one, but once I got going I zipped through in no time.
21:37 – an average time, but would have been much quicker if not rather inexplicably held up in the SE corner by SEVERE and REMOTE, and also SCENT, like some others.
3:46. Nothing tricky here. LOI REMOTE only because it was the last to be revisited being at the bottom. COD to AMUSED. Thanks Pipsqueak and Jackkt.
LOI SCENT. Previously not aware that ABETTOR can also be spelled ABETTER. COD AMNESTY. Thanks Pipsqueak and Jack.
Yes that was fun – LOI REMOTE, once I’d corrected REServE to RESTATE which allowed AMERICANO. Thanks, Jack.
Oh dear. Very easy to start with but then slow on SCENT and needed hint for ROAST. Also lazily put Delete instead of SEVERE, so DNF.
Liked SHINE, AMNESTY, among others.
Thanks vm, Jack.
10 minutes for me. Excellent QC I thought.
LOI REMOTE after SEVERE.
It wasn’t that easy but fair and clever.
COD to ROAST but lots of candidates.
David
14 in 20 and 21 in 30 leaving three.
3d gets a mere from me as does 10ac
22ac I should have seen.
Thanks P and J
3.45 No dramas, all well clued and fair and square.
The top half flew in, and once I saw the token hard clue (Abetter) in the bottom half, I thought a sub-20 was in the bag. However, my last two, Severe and Remote 🙄, obviously hadn’t read the script, and so I’m left muttering to myself in a window seat as the SCC slowly fills.
I quite liked Pipsqueak’s anagrams, especially Mortal Sin and Amnesty, but CoD to Spitting Image for the memories it conjured (. . .and what about the vegetables?) Invariant
All done and dusted in reasonable time. Did get held up a bit by ROAST and SCENT.
Thanls to Pipsqueak and Jack
Failed to properly engage my brain for this one and had several clues that held me up. REMISS was FOI. CORRESPONDING, RECORD and especially SCENT, my last 3 in, were responsible for a significant amount of time spent pondering. 9:39. Thanks Pipsqueak and Jack.
8:54. Like others, LOI SCENT. I had tried to make REMOTE work for 16dn, and then there it was at 22ac. And yes there were some clever anagrams here: many set free for AMNESTY and it’s normal for MORTAL SIN.
Thanks to Pipsqueak and jackkt
All bar the SE corner and 11ac done fairly quickly. However I must have spent at least 6 or 7 minutes on the SE and then entered RESTATE at 11ac with a shrug, only parsing it afterwards. No exact time but around 22 minutes.
FOI 1ac REMISS
LOI 11ac RESTATE
COD 13ac SPARE TYRE
Thanks to Pipsqeak and Jack
9.30 I ran out of steam and spent nearly half the time on SCENT, SHINE, REMOTE and SEVERE. MORTAL SIN and AMNESTY were both very good. Thanks Jack and Pipsqueak.
We made what seemed like a fast start but got completely bogged down on the last three or four taking us out to a rather slow 14:56. The culprits included REMOTE and RECORD but we stared at POI CORRESPONDING for a long time (thinking it might end in ..penning), flitting between that and the also un(re)solved LOI SCENT. Our POI was obvious once we’d seen it but I had a MER at sent / broadcast. They don’t seem quite the same to me. Anyway, a minor niggle and it doesn’t really account for our tardiness, should have seen CORRESPONDING much more quickly. COD RESTATE. Thanks, Jack and Pipsqueak.
I found this more difficult than most of you. SCENT was easy enough but I got stuck for a while on SHINE and REMOTE and also ROAST. So a rather leisurely 12:56.
Tough for me but managed in 1 hr 19
Pure guess on scent.
Don’t think it was a fair definition- to track something is not the same as scenting it.
Apart from that, very good
I felt I was guessing on SCENT too, but others have convinced me.
5:36
Pretty quick until final answer REMOTE which took several moments’ thought. Several chestnutty answers today such as ANGLER and SEVERE. A gentle start to the week.
Thanks Jack and Pipsqueak
12:11
A very nice QC. Only 3 in the first across pass but the first down pass bore much better fruit.
SCENT was obvious from the checkers but imho it wasn’t the best clue.
As other LOI REMOTE took some head scratching.
FOI: MANDELA
LOI: REMOTE
COD: SPARE TYRE (for the smile it brought)
Thanks to Jack and Pipsqueak
A welcome more gentle crossword after a few tricksy ones last week. I was still a bit slow to get going and was held up by ROAST, RESTATE (I always forget ATE for HAD) and SEVERE). All done, though in 13.39. Thank you Pipsqueak and Jack.
(By the way, all my puzzles are now being wiped as soon as I’ve completed them. Is this happening to everyone?)
16 mins…
Very frustrating – had everything in 9 mins apart from 3dn “Scent” and 16dn “Severe”, both of which then took a further 7 minutes to solve. I also took an age to see the parsing of “Panama”, primarily because I was thinking the second “a” in Pa was at the end and it didn’t make sense.
The rest was enjoyable.
FOI – 1ac “Remiss”
LOI – 16dn “Severe”
COD – 8ac “Corresponding”
Thanks as usual!
Unable to access the site this morning so a late post. Gentle Monday fare, 05:21 for an Underarm Day. I was just starting to get cross about being expected to know some modern TV programme when instead I realised that it would be young people getting cross about being expected to know some 1980s programme.
Many thanks Pip and Jack. You sound like a children’s clothing company.
I didn’t find this quite as straightforward as others seem to have done, but nevertheless managed to just about beat my target finishing in 9.42. I join the long queue of those whose LOI was SCENT, which must have held me up for about a minute.
Similar experience to others – last two in by a long way were SCENT and ROAST respectively. Otherwise I found this much easier than of late. COD AMUSED. Many thanks both.
Single figures (just) for a puzzle that I found easier than several others of late. Thought 21a might be Dieppe but Imp and Abetter made me lift and separate! The Downs flew in apart from loi SCENT and I patted my tum as 13a went in…. Great fun, thanks setter and blogger.
10:01 for me. Like many others, SCENT was my LOI, with neither definition seeming very strong. COD to MORTAL SIN, nice anagram.
Thanks to Pipsqueak and Jackkt.
Was flying along until the brakes came on, finally coming home in 13:16 with the last 5 minutes spent staring at the NW corner. Why can’t I remember that criticise = ROAST? Stumps me every time. Eventually the penny dropped and the last few quickly followed.
Thanks to Pipsqueak and Jack.
I was on for a similar time to our blogger, but for some reason my last two in slowed me right down, much like others 😅 We’ve seen variations on SEVERE often enough, but I couldn’t get it straightaway today. I did like REMOTE for the cryptic definition when it finally fell! I also liked SUITE very much – it reminded me of all the hooha about John Bercow’s redecorations all those years ago – as well as MORTAL SIN and AMUSED. And at the risk of setting off a very animated discussion, I’m offering Bridge over Troubled Water as the best ever album! Closely followed by Dark Side of the Moon (showing my age here!).
7:26 FOI Remiss LOI Remote COD Amnesty
Thanks Pipsqueak and Jack
8:17
Fast, but breezeblocked by SEVERE, which I just could not see this morning. I paused the clock, left the puzzle while I went for an 11 mile walk, then came back to it, at which point the answer was so obvious that I can’t understand how I failed to see it earlier.
Thanks Jack and Pipsqueak
11:43, and that’s not too slow for me, considering I was reluctant to try this today because of a persistent brain fog. Nothing frustratingly difficult, so the only hold-ups were (same as everyone else) SCENT, and the usual problems a foreigner has — the NHO SPITTING IMAGE and forgetting how to spell “tyre”. Also I keep forgetting to equate “have” and “eat”.
FOI REMISS, LOI SCENT, COD MORTAL SIN.
Thanks Pipsqueak and jackkt.
Arghh. Everything but SCENT done in about 7 minutes, then spent another 7 failing to getting it, then gave up. Crushing!
Oh well. Thank you for the blog!
Edit: thank you also for recommending the 15×15 – not only did I finish it, I almost evaded the SCC! 20:05, which has got to be my PB for that one.
Nice! But surely 20 minutes is on the ‘over-welcoming’ side to the 15*15 SCC, if there is one! I would have thought more like an hour…
Hard luck, Wombat. I really do sympathise, but your post did at least bring a little comfort to this random chap.
full of extremely good clues, rapid progress by my standards, my pen flying across the grid in a blur (slight exaggeration), but failed on scent. Cod corresponding or remote.
3d was a heaven sent clue.
Usual story, I’m afraid. 28 minutes for all-but-one clue (not at all bad for me) followed by almost 15 minutes on my LOI (_E_E_E). I got the final E early, but couldn’t find the correct synonym for cut off or the required definition.
This (breezeblock) pattern has happened so often recently that I’m starting to get genuinely concerned. Why the repeated mental blocks over my final clue or two?
Many thanks to Jack and Pipsqueak.
Another disappointing day.
17 minutes for this ‘easy’ puzzle and then close to 40 minutes for the ‘very easy’ 15 x 15. As always, I struggle on the last few clues and finish feeling frustrated and discouraged.
I spent over an hour on Sunday Times puzzle yesterday and got less than half. Dismal performance that reminded me of how little progress I have made when it comes to a really challenging puzzle .
9:35. I clearly found that harder than Jack did, some pretty simple clues completely escaping me for a time. a good puzzle, enjoyed. thanks both.
8.29. Took me too long to see ‘scent’. I see that I’m not alone.
Fastest of the year so far with 11:03. Thanks Jack and Pipsqueak.