This was an odd one – medium difficulty, but hard to see why after the event. With a grand total of eight anagrams, it ought to have been easier than I made it. I think some of the surfaces are cleverly disguised, and there are a couple of misdirections – ‘article’ in 2dn and ‘half-cut’ in 19dn. Six and a bit minutes for me.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | I give up drink permit (8) |
| PASSPORT – PASS (I give up, I don’t know) + PORT | |
| 5 | Women’s group backed by politician — he’s wet (4) |
| WIMP – WI + MP | |
| 8 | Fetch riveter nuts, last in crate (8) |
| RETRIEVE – anagram (‘nuts’) of RIVETER, followed by [ |
|
| 9 | Emperor’s somewhat mordant, sarcastic (4) |
| TSAR – hidden word | |
| 11 | Blemish on crazy Ottoman leader in country (10) |
| MADAGASCAR – SCAR (blemish) on MAD AGA | |
| 14 | Bird heading for pigeon fancier (6) |
| PLOVER – P + LOVER | |
| 15 | SW Asian troops and I behind you (6) |
| YEMENI – MEN (troops) + I behind YE | |
| 17 | A victory so unlikely for country (5,5) |
| IVORY COAST – anagram (‘unlikely’) of A VICTORY SO | |
| 20 | Smooth surfaces on ground level in ballroom (4) |
| GLIB – acronym | |
| 21 | Mysterious beast e’en, one’s nowhere to be seen (8) |
| ABSENTEE – anagram (‘mysterious’) of BEAST E’EN | |
| 22 | 9 going wrong, dammit! (4) |
| RATS – anagram (‘going wrong’) of the answer to 9ac (TSAR) | |
| 23 | Evil spirit — and poor golfer? (8) |
| BOGEYMAN – double definition of sorts. A bogey is one stroke over par in golf, so a bogey man presumably does that a lot. I gather that is undesirable. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | A little nipper toddling forward (4) |
| PERT – hidden word | |
| 2 | Place that article in centre of museum (4) |
| SITE – IT (that article) inside [ |
|
| 3 | Person investigating every tape I mixed (7,3) |
| PRIVATE EYE – anagram (‘mixed’) of EVERY TAPE I | |
| 4 | Expose skin on remarkable calf (6) |
| REVEAL – R[ |
|
| 6 | Screen it, after editing, behind closed doors (2,6) |
| IN SECRET – anagram (‘after editing’) of SCREEN IT | |
| 7 | Painting or paintings etc lifted through hole (8) |
| PORTRAIT – OR + ART (paintings etc) backwards (‘lifted’) inside PIT | |
| 10 | Carry On director might do this (4,1,5) |
| MAKE A SCENE – double definition. | |
| 12 | Dog, one on a trampoline? (8) |
| SPRINGER – double definition | |
| 13 | Risotto prepared after first of martinis — and one for the road? (8) |
| MOTORIST – anagram (‘prepared’) of RISOTTO after M for Martinis | |
| 16 | Shocker after shocker in error (3-3) |
| BOO-BOO – I presume by shocker they mean “Boo!” when said to take someone by surprise | |
| 18 | A moggy bit! (4) |
| ATOM – A + TOM (cat) | |
| 19 | Cut when half-cut! (4) |
| HEWN – anagram (‘half-cut’, i.e. drunk) of WHEN. I assumed ‘half-cut meant a truncated word. My COD – very neat. | |
11:22 for me, which suggests a puzzle of medium difficulty as it is pretty much my par time. But that hides several clues where I was badly held up. I had little idea what was going on with REVEAL, as I parsed this as on=RE + calf=VEAL, and then had no idea what skin or remarkable were doing in the clue. Similarly, I’m not familiar with “surfaces” meaning “take the initial letters to”, so GLIB took a while. But the biggest hold-up was on my LOI, HEWN, where “half-cut” was new to me as an anagram indicator. I would add it to “the list”, except it is becoming easier to list words which haven’t been used as anagram indicators – though having said that it is very clever and a lot better than many!
Many thanks Curarist for the blog.
Like you, we wondered about REVEAL, noting that on>re, calf >veal
Yet without ‘skin on remarkable’ it would fail as a DD, so assume the addition was necessary?
Likewise, though I just to took ‘expose skin’ is to REVEAL and moved on – my temporary ignorance was bliss!
DNF on HEWN. I’d previously struggled a lot with PERT and GLIB – so a hidden, a first letter and an anagram undid me. – and all four letter words. I ought to feel more disappointed with myself. All but two letters in 16.24.
8:24
I could make nothing of LOI 18d until I got the M; then it hit me.
Hard going today due to some tricky definitions but it was all fairly clued. COD to BOGEYMAN for neatly summarising my golfing skills (although with me it’s often preceded by the dreaded double or triple)
Started with WIMP and finished with HEWN in 9.56.
Thanks to Mara and Curarist
A consistent BOGEYMAN would have a handicap of exactly 18, which I understand is fairly decent for a casual golfer.
I agree. My late husband played golf and he would have been pleased with a bogey. One over par is good, rather than bad, except in the case of championship chaps. I think we need a stewards’ enquiry.
DNF, missing BOO-BOO and BOGEYMAN. Actually I had BOO-BOO pencilled in but was unable to justify it as I thought of BOO only as an expression of disapproval, not as a potential shocker. Even assuming the O checker might be correct I was nowhere near to coming up with BOGEYMAN.
Some good and testing clues give me some satisfaction until I reached the bottom right corner – I got ATOM after a struggle but I needed help for BOO BOO, BOGEYMAN, HEWN so DNF for me. I thought the ‘half-cut’ as an anagram indicator for HEWN was a step too far for a QC.
This was tougher for me than the SNITCH suggests.
Thanks to Mara for an unwelcome lesson at the end of the week and to Curarist for a much-needed and helpful blog.
Note added. I see only 5 previous posts (and it is now 9am) so I guess others may have found this unusually tough, even for a Friday……..
DNF with BOGEYMAN and YEMENI.
Initially erred in trying to use port as hole in PORTRAIT
Part biffed ‘IN Camera ‘ took a minute to correct to IN SECRET
REVEAL seemed laboured.
That said, did enjoy this challenge and but for the two DNF clues, was out of SCC which for us is A Good Thing.
Thank you Mara and Curarist.
Seven after 20 minutes and 11 after 30.
COD 11ac a perfect QC clue even though I missed it.
Thanks M & C
Tried to find an M C Hammer pun but failed dismally.
I see from the scarcity of posts that I am not alone in struggling to access the site this morning. Gremlins still giving the annoying “too many requests” message.
That had a few real snorters in there – HEWN took me ages to see (hats off to Mara for so skilfully hiding a 4 letter anagram!); COD BOGEYMAN was really clever; MAKE A SCENE did not cone readily to mind; and I really struggled (and failed) to parse BOO-BOO, because I thought the first shocker must be BOOB (as in error) but I couldn’t see how OO worked.
All that pushed me over target and out to 07:55 for an Undistinguished Day. Many thanks Mara and Curarist.
Yesterday we were ‘too many request’ed’ out …
Today we were welcomed, seemingly with open arms.
Today was A Better Day in our world.
any clue about the ‘too many requested ‘ scenario – been getting that for about a week – at varying times of day
Exactly my experience: hard, but hard to see why. Couldn’t see anything at first; then FOI MOTORIST. Got on to Mara’s wavelength in the end, finished with BOGEYMAN, but still needed you, Curarist, for difficult parsing of PORTRAIT, thanks. MAKE A SCENE: why *Carry On* as opposed to any other film? Liked PASSPORT.
“Carry on” and “make a scene” can both mean “behave in an overly emotional way”
Of course, how slow of me. Thanks.
Found this a bit of a struggle. Took a long time to see MADAGASCAR. Had incorrectly parsed REVEAL in the same way as Cedric. Biffed HEWN – thanks to blog, can now appreciate it as a clever clue. Thanks Curarist and Mara.
14:20
I found this quite a struggle, though with hindsight no clue is especially tough. COD to HEWN.
Thanks Mara and Curarist
Defeated in the SE corner by BOGEYMAN and HEWN. The remaining clues had taken me around 25 minutes, so an undistinguished solve to end an undistinguished week. Didn’t parse REVEAL or PORTRAIT and struggled with PERT and GLIB.
FOI – 8ac RETRIEVE
LOI – DNF
CODs – of the clues I solved I liked PERT and PASSPORT. To those I would add the BOGEYMAN which defeated me.
Thanks to Mara and Curarist
DNF BOGEYMAN. Among LOsI HEWN, PASSPORT, ABSENTEE and SITE.
I do find it disconcerting when setters write SW Asia rather than Middle East but I did solve YEMENI straight away, thanks to the crossers.
I liked PLOVER, MADAGASCAR, PASSPORT and WIMP, among others.
Thanks vm, Curarist. CNP all.
Hard going today, but nothing unfair. Did a reveal on Pert and Boo-Boo as DNK that meaning of pert and hadn’t thought of Boo for shocking. Thanks Mara and Curarist.
The hardest of the week as far as I’m concerned mainly due to the se corner. With only two to get and just about on my ten minute target, I took a further minute plus to get BOGEYMAN and an agonising two minutes plus to complete the puzzle with HEWN. I was completely thrown by seeking a synonym for being tipsy or drunk. Nevertheless, I at least finished with all correct even if it took me 13.32 to do so.
My total time for the week was 54.50, giving me a daily average of 10.58.
I found this quite easy – until I reached 19d, and there I remained stuck. I concentrated too much on half cut meaning drunk. Other than that I was totally lost on it.
So in the end a DNF. On submitting the puzzle I discovered that I had got 1d wrong. I put PART (“A little …”)
Answered correctly no help: 18
Answered with help: 3
Wrong answer: 1
DNF: 1
DNF with three clues unsolved – YEMENI, BOGEYMAN and HEWN. Approximately 10 minutes spent on these at the end, but I was never even close and I don’t think I would ever have found any of them.
My progress to that point had been very fast (for me), so I’m disappointed to miss out on an SCC escape.
Many thanks to Curarist and Mara.
5:07. Held up at the end by LOI HEWN. Yes it was a new anagram indicator for me too. I liked PERT best. Thanks-you Mara and Curarist.
10:47
Took ages to come up with last two, neither of which would have been out of place in the 15×15: BOGEYMAN (I don’t play golf) and MAKE A SCENE (for which I forgot about that meaning of ‘Carry On’). Everything else was pretty straightforward – I liked ATOM and HEWN.
Thanks Curarist and Mara
I made hard work of this and lost a lot of time on my last 2 in, PLOVER and YEMENI. I totally failed to lift and separate for the latter. SITE was FOI. A sluggish 14:22. Thanks Mara and Curarist.
8.41 I was held up by YEMENI, BOGEYMAN and HEWN at the end. HEWN was very good. Thanks Curarist and Mara.
I really enjoyed this clever crossword, despite being held up for ages at the end by HEWN.
11 mins of fun – thanks Mara, and Curarist.
16:32
Breeze blocked by HEWN, alphabet trawl did not expect that W. “Half-cut” too ambiguous for an anagram indicator.
Also guessed IN CAMERA which came up in the biggie earlier this week I think.
Misread SW Asia as the more common SE Asia, and ran out of countries quickly.
COD BOGEYMAN
DNF
Romped through most of this before becoming stuck in SE ATOM, BOO HOO and BOGEYMAN all caused problems but failed to spot the anagram indicator and didn’t get HEWN.
Another DNF in the SE corner – I could have stared at BOO-BOO, HEWN and BOGEYMAN for a thousand years without getting anywhere, so I’m mainly just pleased that I gave up when I did.
Thank you for the blog!
This was already a slow solve, but my last three: Bogeyman, Hewn and Plover practically doubled my time and ensured I had a decent view of the 30min post. I only got Hewn when thinking about Half-cut/drunk. A good clue, but out of place in a QC.
CoD to Bogeyman for the pdm. Invariant
Like others I was doing OK until the SE corner so DNF. Undone by BOO BOO, BOGEYMAN and HEWN.
My thanks to Mara and Curarist.
Quite hard I thought for a QC. Something unpredictable about it made me think a lot.
1a Passport not hard but it would not come.
11a COD Mad Aga Scar.
17a Ivory Coast would not come easily, possibly because I call it Cote D’Ivoire. A friend of mine hails from there and TBH he calls it Ivory Coast too, on the grounds that he dislikes the French empire more than ours and no-one uses the Cote name.
17d Portrait, saw the ART coming up but CNP, so thanks Curarist.
Is the use of “remarkable “ in 4 down not there to provide the “re” (the skin, or edges, of the word remarkable)
That is why I thought (and what Curarist says in his blog).
DNF PERT (my LOI) – another hidden I failed to spot! I was working on a = per but then didn’t know where the T came from 🤪. Thanks for much-needed blog C. COD HEWN for getting my brain cells firing! Top quality QC. Thanks Mara.
I found this hard but a new tactic of reading each clue once on a pass and moving on if its not immediately obvious allowed me a faster time than I might have otherwise gotten
12:52
The short ones in SE and NW nearly did for me, but eventually crawled over the line, after writing down all the possible starters fot P_r_, and finally seeing the hidden. Grr.
FOI Wimp
LOI Pert
COD Hewn
thanks Mara and Curarist
20:56
Reading the comments above make me feel I punched above my weight on this one. Glad I didn’t throw the towel in struggling as others with the SW corner.
Threw PORTRAIT in because it fitted and though unparsed, it felt right.
Took a break and then BOGEYMAN revealed itself, but HEWN was entered in desperation with no idea how the clue worked other than it meant to cut.
It felt like I solved this more by luck than judgement – yet another learning day!
FOI: WIMP
LOI: HEWN
COD: BOGEYMAN
A big thanks to Curarist and thanks to Mara
Hewn is the past participle of hew (cut). E.g. The fallen trees had been hewn by the lumberjack.
I think the setter was clever here because ‘cut’ is often used in the present but he was using it in the past.
It certainly confused me!
16:15 for me. I am not good at anagrams, so typically have to wait for crossers, get an answer that fits the definition and then check the letters. I liked the symmetry of both 10-letter across answers being African countries. COD to MAKE A SCENE.
Thanks to Mara and Curarist.
31:42, in which Mara makes life difficult for me. A classic case of “it was easy until it wasn’t.” I only finished because I went away and didn’t think about it for two hours, came back and got BOGEYMAN out of an alphabet trawl, and finally gave up (so DNF actually) and looked up half-cut to discover it is a perfectly reasonable anagrind. Gee, I think of a bogeyman as a physical being, not a spirit, but what can you do. Mara has recently taken first place in the honor roll of setters who strike fear into my heart.
Many fine clues, as always, with special applause for GLIB.
Thanks to Mara and Curarist.
30 minute DNF.
Spent over 10 mins on 19dn before putting LEAN. Pretty poor effort prior to that.
Overall, another dreadful performance to cap off a nightmare week. Only 1 SCC escape.
I would love to come here and say something positive, but, at this precise moment, I wish that I had never gone anywhere near cryptic crosswords. I don’t have the brain for them and I never will.
There is no fun for me when I can’t see any improvement. Had HEWN been in the 15 x 15, I’m sure I would have got it because I would have been looking for something clever. But in a QC? No chance.
A miserable weekend awaits. Back for more suffering on Monday.
12.06. I never get on well with Mara puzzles.
Not half cut (promise) but defeated by HEWN and by BOO BOO/BOGEYMAN. A bogey is actually not bad for me on the golf course – double or triple bogey more likely! My first answer to 6d was IN CAMERA (screen) until no crossers fitted, and then I saw the anagram. Well into SCC before I looked bottom SE up. Thanks Mara and Curarist
A miserable week for this (usually) resident of the SCC, 4 DNF this week including today.
Nowhere near with YEMENI (Middle East for me and never in Asia), PORTRAIT or HEWN (both way too clever).
And in terms of my golf, (single) bogey was my aspiration. Double and triple bogies were (sadly) the norm.
16:27 Hewn by pert booboo
Ta CAM
Dnf…
Like many, 23ac “Bogeyman” (which I don’t think of as an evil spirit) and 19dn “Hewn” defeated me – although trying to access this site was a close second. Not sure what is going on, but I keep getting the “Too Many Requests” prompts every other day.
FOI – 9ac “Tsar”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 10dn “Make a scene”
Thanks as usual!
A very enjoyable puzzle but I still don’t understand how “that article” clues “it” in 2d.