Time: 10:06
The ever-reliable Teazel. Not too hard but with a few speed bumps along the way.
There were a few write-ins but I found many of the clues needed some thought. Nothing unfair or too difficult and a nice way to spend some time inside on a day here for which a maximum temperature of 44° – that’s nearly 112° in the old money – has been forecast.
Thanks to Teazel
Definitions underlined in bold, letters in wordplay not appearing in answer or deletions indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Dance curtailed by proper royal residence (8) |
| BALMORAL – BAL |
|
| 5 | Grand decay producing rubbish (4) |
| GROT – G (‘Grand’) ROT (‘decay’) | |
| 8 | Being alone outside, wandering around lake (8) |
| SOLITUDE – Anagram (‘wandering) of OUTSIDE containing (‘around’) L (‘lake’) | |
| 9 | Boundary shrubs trimmed at front and side (4) |
| EDGE – One of the speed bumps. For such an innocent looking clue this was surprisingly difficult to parse. I wondered if the whole clue was the definition, but that would hardly be cryptic, or if it was an unusual clue with two definitions – ‘Boundary’ and ‘side’ – and the wordplay as just ‘shrubs’ giving HEDGE, with ‘trimmed at front’ indicating the first letter deletion. This is over-complicating things though and I doubt this is what Teazel intended. |
|
| 11 | Obvious some applause means faultless performance (5,5) |
| CLEAR ROUND – CLEAR (‘Obvious’) ROUND (‘some applause’)
For example, in a horse show jumping competition. |
|
| 14 | Old, crowded Danish city (6) |
| ODENSE – O (‘Old’) DENSE (‘crowded’) | |
| 15 | Intelligence chief’s name for emoji (6) |
| SMILEY – Double definition
For the first def, George Smiley, the spymaster in John Le Carré’s novels. For the second, I think I used one… once. Well, only a few (defined very elastically) times anyway. |
|
| 17 | Was a Spice Girl performing nothing on this instrument? (10) |
| DIDGERIDOO – DID GERI DO (‘Was a Spice Girl performing’) O (‘nothing’)
Parsing the first bit of the wordplay together, rather than as separate words seems to make this easier to explain. GERI for Geri Halliwell aka Ginger Spice of the Spice Girls (even I knew that), now married to Christian Horner, formerly of Red Bull F1. |
|
| 20 | Vestment right to go with medal (4) |
| ROBE – R (‘right’) OBE (‘medal’) | |
| 21 | Very personal hint (8) |
| INTIMATE – Double definition
A homograph but not a homophone. |
|
| 22 | Depicted Scottish saint, omitting a name (4) |
| DREW – Deletion of A (‘a’) and N (‘name’). St. Andrew, the apostle and the patron saint of Scotland – since 1320 according to Wikipedia. I think we had a discussion here relatively recently about N for ‘name’; I can’t recall the details but it was given the TfTT seal of approval. |
|
| 23 | Emotionally arouse boy entertaining sorceress (6,2) |
| SWITCH ON – SON (‘boy) containing (‘entertaining’) WITCH (‘sorceress’) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Transport tons in chest (4) |
| BUST – BUS (‘Transport’) T (‘tons’)
No, not the buried treasure sort of chest as the surface would have us believe. |
|
| 2 | Three learners welcoming university’s reduction in activity (4) |
| LULL – L L L (‘Three learners’) containing (‘welcoming’) U (‘university’) between the first and second L’s. | |
| 3 | Dismissed from lesson, could one say, nothing like as good as the others? (10) |
| OUTCLASSED – Definition with cryptic hint.
Someone ‘Dismissed from lesson’ could be said to be (‘could one say’) OUTCLASSED – or sort of anyway. |
|
| 4 | From the heights of Peru, a new cathedral head (6) |
| ANDEAN – A (‘a’) N (‘new’) DEAN (‘cathedral head’)
In yesterday’s 15×15 we had a RURAL DEAN, a senior parish priest in the Roman Catholic and Anglican church. According to Birketts Ecclesiastical website, referring to the C of E, a Dean is “the senior member of the clergy team at the Cathedral, and heads the Cathedral Chapter and its senior management team. The Dean will also be the senior member of clergy within a Diocese after the Diocesan Bishop”. Something I’ve learnt today. |
|
| 6 | Counter-bid from rebel duo failing (8) |
| REDOUBLE – Anagram (‘failing’) of REBEL DUO
Something else I’ve learnt today. REDOUBLE is a term used, as a verb or noun, in (the card game) Bridge: “(a call that) double(s) a bid already doubled by an opponent” (Oxford Dictionaries). |
|
| 7 | Regular occurrences of dust easy to transform (8) |
| TUESDAYS – Anagram (‘to transform’) of DUST EASY
“I play golf (on) Tuesdays” indicates this is a ‘regular occurrence’ or maybe it’s simpler than that and just referring to TUESDAYS as ‘regular occurrences’, occurring every seven days. |
|
| 10 | Is one’s playing career on the slide? (10) |
| TROMBONIST – Cryptic definition
Definitely another speed bump. I had the right idea but couldn’t get the guitar playing technique out of my head until I had a few crossing letters. My COD. |
|
| 12 | Mused about pool before first of dives (8) |
| PONDERED – POND (‘pool’) ERE (‘before’) D |
|
| 13 | Possible to interpret assortment of bread and ale (8) |
| READABLE – Anagram (‘assortment’) of BREAD ALE | |
| 16 | To separate wheat from chaff is instant success? (6) |
| WINNOW – An ‘instant success’ would be a WIN NOW
The question mark maybe indicating a cryptic hint. |
|
| 18 | Heavy blow for party (4) |
| BASH – Double definition | |
| 19 | Somewhat safer nutrient for plant not flowering (4) |
| FERN – Hidden (‘Somewhat’) in Having ‘not flowering’ as part of the def was a bonus and did help me to see the answer. |
|
Well, here in Connecticut, temperature is -1o C and we just finished clearing 20 inches of snow. Another 5-6 inches is expected on Sunday. If you have excess heat, we could use it!
Oh, the puzzle. I found it much harder than average, especially the spelling of didgeridoo. I had to remember that Geri was one of the Spice Girls before I could be confident. I couldn’t parse pondered at all, but decided that must be it.
Time: 14:19
5:15 with probably a full minute at the end staring at B_S_ before I could come up with anything. No idea why I couldn’t see it.
Thanks Teazel and BR.
BTW, enjoy the 44 in Melbourne Bletch. It’s 24 in Perth today. Funny times we live in.
18 minutes, adding 10 to my time for yesterday’s. For the first 9 or 10 minutes I was going along well enough with only a MER at REDOUBLE because I didn’t know the required meaning, but then I ground to a halt with three answers missing in the SW corner and that was where the rest of my time was used up.
I thought ODESSA at 14ac but was unable to parse it so it didn’t go in, and if I knew ODENSE as a city in Denmark I had completely forgotten about it.
I tried constructing 12dn from wordplay whilst missing a couple of checkers but was unsuccessful for ages because I’d convinced myself that ‘pool before first of dives’ would be MERE-D, but it turned out that I was completely on the wrong track with this.
My LOI was DIDGERIDOO. I was missing the first checker and I couldn’t remember the names of any Spice Girls other than the one who’s in the news at the moment.
The clue for edge feels similar to yesterday’s clue for tempo. Seems a technique where 2 defs are mingled , one in the wordplay and one for the real def.
Stuck on DIDGERIDOO and PONDERED at the end for quite a while. Saw ‘wondered’ would fit, used the D to start off DIDGERIDOO, carefully checked that would parsed and then never spent enough time trying to understand why it would be ‘wondered’ – and of course it wasn’t. Lots to enjoy here. Eight on the first pass of acrosses but ended up not all green in 11.37.
Par for me done in 9:43 – was feeling quite good about it but then held up at end as with others on the PONDERED / DIDGERIDOO intersection.
Didn’t parse the former in real time so thanks for that Bletchley.
Thoroughly enjoyed this one despite having to think harder than I’d like in places at this time of the morning.
Like Jack, I was tempted by Odessa at 14a until the very vaguely heard of ODENSE was encouraged from the depths by the wordplay and my LOI needed all the checkers before the penny dropped.
Started with GROT (excellent word) and finished with TROMBONIST. COD to DIGERIDOO.
Thanks to BR and Teazel
I had eight after 20 minutes. Redouble was a write in from my Duplicate Bridge days.
Didn’t get anymore after that without revealing letters.
Enjoyable nevertheless.
Thanks Bletch and Tezel
Big fat DNF, failed in the SW. Basically like Jack, but without the patience to persist. NHO ODENSE, didn’t see ‘pond’, was nowhere near DID GERI DO. Well beaten.
Next!
Many thanks Bletchers and Teazel.
11:30
Avoided biffing PONDERED until I could eventually parse it, enabling me to finally see my LOI and COD DIDGERIDOO.
Thanks BR and Teazel
A fast completion until it wasn’t, as I DK ODENSE (not sure if I should have or not, as I see it is the third largest city in Denmark – though still not very large), and could not quite get the wordplay. So a DNF. That apart I was going very well, though I’m not sure I’ve ever seen DIDGERIDOO actually spelled out and had to check it very closely.
Many thanks BR for the blog.
Typo for me (ANDEAD) – very frustrating. But would have been a poor time anyway, as a result of the NHO ODENSE, which I eventually saw.
I would much prefer that any remotely obscure GK was kept for the 15×15.
Other GK required here: name of spicegirl (Geri), name of Le Carre character (Smiley), Bridge betting term (Redouble).
None of this is particularly obscure and I knew it all apart from ODENSE, but for me it’s a little too much for the QC.
Oh so that was what the pool was about, no wonder CNP wONDERED. Didn’t deserve to score this one anyway as NHO WINNOW was contributed by Mrs M who also got the clever (COD) DIDGERIDOO. Thanks BR.
It’s not easy finding a level of GK to suit all ages. Today’s QC no problem for me but I suspect my granddaughter might struggle with a couple of the clues. However I’m quite often out of my depth with modern youth culture so I suppose it balances out. Thanks BR and Teazel.
Fairly tricky I thought. From LULL to DIDGERIDOO, with a long pause pondering POI, PONDERED, in 9:23. Thanks Teazel and BR.
Judging by the comments, I seem to have fared reasonably well. It was only a late indecision about INDICATE=hint (but then full parsing saved the day for INTIMATE) that pushed me 10 seconds over 10 minutes. Interesting blog, thanks.
14:15
Very slow – four in from the first pass of acrosses, and didn’t really improve much on the downs. Some thinking required for SMILEY (haven’t heard them called that for a long time), TROMBONIST and ODENSE – this last being on the tip of my thoughts for ages, and recalled from the Hans Christian Andersen film starring Danny Kaye. Couldn’t have said what WINNOW meant before now, L2I were DIDGERIDOO and PONDERED.
Thanks for the interesting blog BR, and for the puzzle, Teazel
24:04- longer than normal, needing a couple of alphabet trawls to finish. COD definitely DIDGERIDOO – very witty.
Two errors, WONDERED (Mused about) and INDICATE(hint).
COD and LOI DIDGERIDOO
16.40 (all parsed) to complete a very good QC. Some clever and chewy bits but they were all resolved for me. I am happy with my time considering some of the comments above.
I finished with DIDGERIDOO and TROMBONIST – both great clues.
Thanks to Teazel for an enjoyable workout and to BR for the interesting blog.
Looking at some of the comments and early times posted, I don’t feel that my time of 13.15 was outrageously poor. I would have been nearer my target time if I hadn’t spent so long on WINNOW, which no one else seems to have mentioned, so I guess it was more gettable than I made it.
Seeing the word GROT brought a smile to my face, reminding me of one of my favourite sitcom characters Reggie Perrin, and the shop he opened selling basically rubbish and broken items. Looking at some of the youngsters (and some adults) who walk around with torn jeans as a fashion statement, I think he was ahead of his time.
Oh darn, missed SMILEY. So obvious. But actually was he the chief? Also NHO ODENSE.
A very slow DNF x 2. LOI ANDEAN as I had carelessly put Solitary instead of SOLITUDE originally.
Smiled at DIDGERIDOO. Also liked BALMORAL and PONDERED. Was pleased to solve WINNOW early on.
Among other LOsI were TUESDAYS and CLEAR ROUND.
Pretty difficult QC. Many thanks, BR.
I found this one to be very tricky, and I did consider giving up. Instead I persevered and finally managed to complete it, with a fair bit of help I may add.
1st Lap: 3
Answered (no aids): 17
Answered (with aids): 7
DNF: Nil
Time: 40:22
29:28
Oh this was a slog.
3 across and 3 downs in the first pass. 6 across and 6 down at the 12 minute mark and then….
Definitely not with it today – not seeing BALMORAL until late on did not help. Biffed SMILEY with crossed fingers.
Nothing to complain about, just not on Teazel’s wavelength today.
FOI: EDGE
LOI: TROMBONIST
COD: DIDGERIDOO (very good!)
Thanks to Teazel and BR
Having just watched Michael Portillo travelling across Denmark, Odense came easily.
My only problem with this was biffing SOLITARY at 8a which added at least two minutes to my time- 12 minutes in all.
LOI ANDEAN after corrections.
Enjoyed the puzzle.
David
LOI was BALMORAL as I had cleverly decided that royal residence was a lift and drop which it wasn’t.
Other clues took a great deal of thinking and guessing time but perseverance paid off in the end.
Favourites included SWITCH ON, TROMBONE and DIDGERIDOO.
Thanks to Teazel and BR.
4:58. LOI PONDERED. I found I didn’t know ODENSE was in Denmark – but I do now. Thanks Teazel and BR. 44°? Stay cool. Galspray’s Perth weather is hot enough for me. <5° here in Suffolk at the moment.
I started with GROT and finished with DIDGERIDOO which, weirdly, is one of the very few musical instruments I have actually played (not very well, mind). It was a biff once all of its checkers were in place, as I couldn’t parse the clue. Nor could I remember all of The Spice Girls, but I’m not aware they ever released any 20-minute prog or symphonic metal classics.
I wondered about (PONDERED?) TROMBONIST as soon as I read the clue, but slowed myself down by not having the courage to write it in and thereby missing out on some useful checkers for other clues. Despite that, it is my CoD.
Time = 23 minutes. Quite good for me.
Many thanks to BR and Teazel.
How does ‘ some applause’ = round. A round of applause is … a lot of applause. Isn’t it?! Confused dot com!
Done on the bus, an unusual experience. Easy jog through, held up only by putting in DIGERRIDO despite parsing it correctly. Thanks to both
Found this very hard going, DNF on OUTCLASSED after going for BALLEGAL instead of BALMORAL. This puzzle felt two-paced, plenty of easy clues, but more than enough quite hard ones, especially some of the longer clues that can be so complicated to parse.