This one took me a long time: 24:27, practically double my average. After my first pass through the acrosses I had precisely two answers: TRAGIC and ROCK AND ROLL. Things picked up when 6 of the first 7 down clues went in at first look and then slowed to a crawl again, finally finishing with an alphabet trawl to find WAFFLE. But looking at the clues, there’s nothing really fiendish here, so maybe I was just having an off-day.
One opinion I’ll offer: two sets of linked clues is two sets too many.
Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, anagram fodder indicated like (this)*.
| Across | |
| 1 | Bristle, awfully sore (7) |
| BLISTER – (BRISTLE)* | |
| 5 | Weakness in gripper? (4) |
| VICE – A double definition. | |
| 7 | Go on, have it for breakfast! (6) |
| WAFFLE – A definition and a cryptic hint, or two definitions? Doesn’t really make any difference.
This was my last one in. On my first pass through, I pencilled in EGGING, as in “on”, even though it didn’t really parse. Fortunately that didn’t survive contact with 1d. |
|
| 8 | Deadly time to spread message (6) |
| MORTAL – T (time) inside (spreading; making wider) MORAL (message). | |
| 9 | Choir’s range is extraordinary — you can bet on it! (5,6) |
| HORSE RACING – (CHOIR’S RANGE)* | |
| 10 | Pledge I have, I say! (2,4) |
| MY WORD – I think this is MY (I have) + WORD (I say), but I’m not really convinced by either half of that parsing. | |
| 12 | Very sad US soldier in wagon, retreating (6) |
| TRAGIC – GI (US soldier) in CART (wagon), reversed [retreating].
This was the first one I was confident of. |
|
| 14 | Music the fate of Sisyphus? (4,3,4) |
| ROCK AND ROLL – Another one that could be a DD or a definition and a cryptic hint.
Sisyphus, as you’ll remember, was the character in Greek mythology condemned to always push a ROCK up a hill and then have it ROLL down again. |
|
| 17 | Seek a part of a church (6) |
| ASPIRE – A (in the clue) + SPIRE (part of a church). | |
| 18 | Said leader of opposition decorated after victory (6) |
| VOICED – V for victory, + O (first letter [leader] of Opposition) + ICED (decorated, as cakes).
Is V for victory just from Churchill? I’m struggling to think of anywhere where V is used as a substitute for victories: in league tables it is “W” for “wins” not “V” for “victories”. |
|
| 20 | Run over wild animal (4) |
| WOLF – FLOW (run), reversed [over]. | |
| 21 | 1 down, say, exhausted having crushed old monarch (7) |
| SERPENT – SPENT (exhausted) including [having crushed] ER (old monarch).
I’m not 100% convinced that ‘having crushed’ can really mean ‘including’, but I can’t see anything else here. This is part of the first of our two sets of linked clues today. If, like me, you got here before you looked at 1 down, you probably also just passed over this one with a shrug. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Finish off swine, reptile (3) |
| BOA – BOA |
|
| 2 | Fire in plant, out initially (7) |
| INFERNO – IN (in the clue), FERN (plant) + O Didn’t we have “fern” in a clue just yesterday? |
|
| 3 | Yonder tree seen briefly in which he hides (5) |
| THERE – HE is hiding inside TRE |
|
| 4 | Sheep with gasp rearing up (7) |
| RAMPANT – RAM (sheep) + PANT (gasp).
“Rampant” in heraldry means an animal is standing on its hind legs. Like this (src: Wikipedia):
|
|
| 5 | Maestro, drive round the bend (5) |
| VERDI – (DRIVE)* | |
| 6 | Cleaner part of fish that’s about right for cook (9) |
| CHARGRILL – CHAR (cleaner) + GILL (part of fish) containing [about] R (right).
Does anyone actually use the word “char” in this sense today, or is it only seen in crosswords? I tend to the latter opinion. |
|
| 9 | Spell words in prose they misspelt (3,6) |
| HEY PRESTO – (PROSE THEY)*
That’s “spell” as in “magic spell”, not the verb “to spell”. |
|
| 11 | Underwear — chest items? (7) |
| DRAWERS – A double definition that took me far far too long to spot. Don’t ask.
The second definition is as in “a chest of drawers”, of course. |
|
| 13 | Cuckoo is gone, a worry (7) |
| AGONISE – (IS GONE A)*
Not a wasted letter in this clue. Nice one. |
|
| 15 | First one put in cooker (5) |
| CHIEF – I (one) in CHEF (cooker – one who cooks).
I’d been doing these puzzles for a long time before I realized (or someone told me) that I = one isn’t just because “I” looks like “1”: it’s also 1 in Roman numerals. Just saying, in case I’m not the only person… |
|
| 16 | Bird 5 down stuffed (5) |
| DIVER – (VERDI)* (the answer to 5 down)
I think “stuffed” as an anagram indicator has to be a nod to the “..in that case we’re stuffed” colloquial usage. The second of our two sets of linked clues. |
|
| 19 | Polish off the extra dessert, last of all (3) |
| EAT – last letters of |
|
MY WORD: I read this as my word=pledge I have, ‘I say!’=MY WORD.
Is ‘Hey presro!’ a spell? And does any magician still say it?
I’ve always thought that one=I in that it’s used–by certain people–as ‘I’: one would think that …, etc. There’s a Monty Python sketch on this.
Nice one Doof with the Rampant pic. I just wonder if the clue for ‘My Word’ is a triple def? Can you substitute ‘I have’ for ‘My Word’?
The QUITCH shows that this puzzle is harder than yesterday, but I found it easier. A MER at Verdi as a maestro, a smile at rock and roll, and a shrug at the multiple cross-references. I just took the clue for my word as a double definition; pledge I have is my word, and I say as an expression of surprise is equivalent to my word.
Time: 11:22
Wiktionary has this:
“maestro (plural maestros or maestri)
(chiefly music) A master in some art, especially a composer or conductor. ”
which covers Mara I think.
18 minutes for the second consecutive day. Hm. On days like this it’s worth remembering that Mara is one of The Guardian’s most devious of setters (as Paul).
I didn’t know that! Certainly makes sense given today’s puzzle, with the cross referencing, though far less than you might see in a Paul puzzle.
I’ll be kind and simply say I didn’t have a particularly enjoyable time with this puzzle.
Flew out the blocks, hit the buffers, staggered over the line. ROCK AND ROLL was the first of the hold ups to fall, ended up with WOLF after VOICED. So very nearly whacked in ‘rampart’ but having previously resisted ‘coffee’ – because apart from fitting it didn’t have much merit – I reckoned careful parsing was important. All green in 19.20
VE Day, VJ Day – both have V for Victory. Also “V for Victory” was a war-time slogan, albeit taken from Churchill’s V-sign.
I believe, although I may be wrong, the V for victory slogan came first and was adopted by Churchill, not the other way round.
Also the opening notes of Beethovens 5th were used as a call sign, the Du-Du-Du-Daah, being morse code for V.
Held up at the end by CHIEF and then WOLF which took a 23 letter alphabet crawl having been fixated on R for Run and O for Over.
Liked ROCK AND ROLL, VOICED and CHARGRILL.
Thanks Mara and Doofers.
17:14
I found this terrifically hard – one in from the first pass of all clues – once a few more were in, then things improved, but apart from a brief splurge in the middle, this seemed far harder than the current Quitch of 116 would suggest. Looking back of course, it’s difficult to see where the issues were – if I could be bothered to find a pen and paper, I might have solved HORSE RACING more quickly, for instance.
Thanks Doofers and Mara
Much the same experience as our blogger, with a slow start, a quick middle, and a very slow finish as I dragged first CHIEF then WOLF out of the little grey cells for my L2I. All done in 10:44, which based on the QUITCH is not a bad result, but I would hardly say it was a fluent solve. I didn’t really work out the parsing of MY WORD, though I think “I say” must be the definition, which makes “Pledge I have” the wordplay – and pretty stilted wordplay at that in that case.
Many thanks Doofers for the blog. If you are thinking of setting up a “ban linked clues” petition, may I sign it?
Add me in. At least for the QC.
I didn’t have too many problems with this right up until I hit the buffers with three to go – MORTAL, CHIEF and WOLF being the culprits that almost doubled my time.
An enjoyable workout which I finished in 8.50.
Thanks to Mara and Doofers
The same last three for me!
As usual with Mara, anagrams (six) abounded but once they were sorted, the rest of the puzzle was something of a biff-fest.
By definition, if it’s taking the blogger 25 mins to complete (off day or not), this is not a quick crossword. Please allot this sort of a puzzle to a specific day/s. There may be people who enjoy this sort of thing; I’m not one of them. Thank you to the blogger for their explanations.
Lots of good clues here, so thank all, but in my opinion Mara is consistently off the mark I’m afraid. This is never a quickie!
I found this a bit tricky as well, 15:25 is on the slow side for sure.
I agree with Keven Gregg’s parsing of MY WORD, pledge = word, and if i have it, it is my word. Also concur that V turns up meaning victory in the well known commemorative days so it is fine with me.
Although 1 = I probably stems from Roman Numerals, sometimes “ten” = IO which definitely doesn’t. Not sure if that is a relatively recent thing for a misdirection of “ten” = X, maybe those that have been studying these things much longer than I have could say.
I really dislike linked clues, Doof, especially, as you say, when the source of the link hasn’t been encountered yet.
Very tough but I was determined to finish this. I moved in fits and starts and found it a challenge. However, I did finish a few seconds under 24 mins so, on this rare occasion, I was slightly faster than our esteemed blogger which has to be the source of some satisfaction.
I needed crossers to complete the top (e.g. VICE). When it finally clicked, HEY PRESTO gave me WOLF and ASPIRE but my LOI was VOICED.
There were some extremely good clues but this was harder than yesterday’s and certainly above our usual QC level, I think (as suggested by the SNITCH).
Thanks to Mara for a real challenge and to Doofers for a valiant blog (and for parsing a couple of biffs for me).
22.54 – about an average time, but only achieved with some biffing and alphabet trawls. Definitely on the harder sides for a QC!
I found this hard to start but, once I got a few crossers like HORSE RACING and ROCK AND ROLL, I began to struggle onwards. Easier and quicker than yesterday, anyway. Couldn’t see BLISTER at first! Liked ASPIRE, RAMPANT, and INFERNO.
Thanks vm, Doofers.
7:20. Yes. Rather on the tricky side, as Mara’s QCs sometimes are, but even so a lot easier than any of the 15x15s we get these days. I was slow getting started and I took a while towards the end to convince myself that “moral” could mean “message”. LOI WOLF after CHIEF gave me the F. Thanks Mara and Doofers.
9:55
I enjoyed this puzzle, and my only major hold up was in the SW corner, with CHIEF and WOLF my last two in. I read MY WORD the same way as Kevin did.
COD to ROCK AND ROLL.
Thanks Doofers and Mara
Come here to put myself out of my misery. Rarely on Mara’s wavelength and this was a struggle to get not very far. Still five to the bad after an hour and a half – time to throw in the towel. Thanks for all the illumination, Doofers.
Humph: turns out to be seven to the bad. RAMPArT does rear up but that’s about it. Decorated = ICED is difficult, tried opined or orated, futile. NHO DIVER bird, so no chance of getting VERDI who was a composer, not a Maestro (though true, the Italians call any musician Maestro). And so on, misery.
(Though to be more positive, I too liked the Sisyphus, and HEY PRESTO once I finally got it.)
11 minutes. CHIEF and WOLF were difficult for me too, especially ‘cooker’ suggesting something which cooks and not a CHEF. I’ve seen variations on the theme before, but I still liked the ‘Sisyphus?’ clue.
Thanks to Doofers and Mara
Only one of the across clues fell on the first pass. The downs proved a little more straightforward but not a lot, so I was quite happy to finish in 21 minutes after that inauspicious start. I had to dodge around the grid and it would be fair to say that nothing came particularly easily. I knew Sisyphus appeared in Greek legend but couldn’t initially remember what his problem was, so needed a number of checkers for this. An enjoyable challenge nonetheless.
FOI – 12ac TRAGIC
LOI – 18ac VOICED
CODs – 9dn HEY PRESTO and 14ac ROCK AND ROLL
Thanks to Mara and Doofers
A toughie. Didn’t get a start until MORTAL, then VERDI arrived to a slight mer.. Another hiatus before ASPIRE, CHIEF and LOI, WOLF arrived. 9:10. Thanks Mara and Doofers.
Not at the races today with this one, although ironically the only clue I solved on the first pass of the across clues was HORSE RACING! Like others, I found this very tough for a QC, and was considerably held up in the sw corner at the end before MY WORD and finally HEY PRESTO came to mind. I eventually staggered over the line in 21.02.
11.06 HEY PRESTO was nice. LOI WOLF took two minutes at the end. Thanks Doofers and Mara.
I found this surprisingly vicious, and will recuperate in the SCC with 20:16.
Thank you for the blog!
25:52
Gosh, that was tough. Failed to parse WOLF. Thought run was W as in wide and over O, both from cricket. But where did the LF come from? I see from the blog I was barking up the wrong tree.
Failed to see either anagram indicator for VERDI or DIVER and but nothing else seemed to fit and finally saw LOI VICE.
Technical DNF
I struggled to get started. TRAGIC was first one in and an accurate prediction of my performance.
Very slow until BLISTER was solved. I then sped along until four were left.
Finally I was left with VICE which I should have seen earlier and VERDI. Totally missed anagram indicator.
I am against linked clues in QC but on this occasion they did not hold me back otherwise TRAGIC would be an understatement.
COD: ROCK AND ROLL (once I had dredged up from the depths of my memory who Sisyphus was.)
Interesting to see that ER has been classified now as old monarch, not late monarch. I know crossword clues are not to be taken literally but I did raise an eyebrow. Makes me feel ancient. (Assuming ER is Elizabeth II and I am not missing something.)
Thanks Doofers and Mara.
ER could also refer to Elizabeth first, who would definitely classify as an old monarch.
Thanks
de-de-de DUM
Quoting from a BBC webpage on The Proms, Tom’s Takes, V for Victory
“The morse code for V – three dots and a dash – was replicated by the opening bars of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. It soon became the BBC European Service’s call sign and interval sign. Across Occupied Europe people hummed and whistled the tune, and in Britain the V made its way onto badges and other items. Prime Minister Churchill made the sign his trademark.
Germany initially banned the V symbol but ironically the country’s most famous composer was himself a champion of personal liberty and a symbol of resistance to dictatorship”
Genuinely not sure what happened today…
I’m still pretty new to fully finishing puzzles and today felt like a breeze (while I’ve struggled with some that folks rated as rather easy earlier in the week).
Clearly I was on the right wavelength this morning…. or Mrs Hep put something in my coffee.
Thanks as always to the blogger and setter.
🙂
My thanks to Mara and Doofenschmirtz.
I found this very hard and feared I would not finish.
1a Blister. I’m not sure that a blister is a sore, but I guess it may feel sore.
8a Mortal; is moral=spreading? Some stories have a moral I suppose.
14a Rock & Roll, ho-ho! COD.
20a Wolf; I didn’t “get” this for ages.
21a LOI Serpent. In my paper it looks like I down not 1 down.
13d Agonise, I was misled to think it was A worry, but the A was just anagrist of course.
I filled in the grid pretty quickly, but with one error: I biffed ‘diapers’ instead of ‘drawers’ but, to be honest, I just couldn’t be bothered by the time I reached that stage. Whether it be Mara, Mudd or Paul, I just do not warm to this setter’s puzzles, which is a shame because earlier in his career I thought that he compiled excellent ones. Lots of looseness in this puzzle, but, to say something positive,I think that the clue for ‘Rock and Roll’ is worth the admission money.
Another DNF, mainly caused by AGONIES, which is a fair synonym for “worry”. This held up SERPENT, and made me not sure about DIVER (a bird?). Also went with BY JOVE.
COD ROCK AND ROLL
Eight in 20 minutes. But no more. My mind is on Digital Marketing and ways of protecting the IP of my eBook.
Thanks D & M
With my FOI being HORSE RACING I dug deep which proved a little too deep in a couple of cases. The anagram of BLISTER was one and MORTAL was the other. I parsed it as MOR(e) TAL(k) as ‘to spread message’ but couldn’t quite justify how time meant lose the final letter! Hey ho. I didn’t know of the Greek character but that didn’t delay. My last two were CHIEF and WOLF. 9:56. Thanks Doofers for showing me the error of my ways. I agree completely with you re the two sets of linked clues.
I HATE CROSS-REFERENCED CLUES!!!
And two pairs in one puzzle is beyond the pale. However, there was plenty of good stuff here to compensate for that aberration, and I was only delayed by briefly trying to justify “diapers” for my LOI.
FOI BLISTER
LOI DRAWERS
COD ROCK AND ROLL
TIME 4:05
Took me a long time: tick
only TRAGIC and ROCK AND ROLL (great clue) on first across pass: tick
6 of the first 7 down clues went in: tick
nothing really fiendish here: tick
two sets of linked clues is two sets too many: tick
Loved it.
Thanks Mara and Doofers.
It’s all been said. 30 mins. COD ROCK AND ROLL.
Thanks Doofers and Mara.
Three sittings to finish, which suggests that at least two from Mara/Editor/solver were having an off day. Invariant
I found this to be slow to start but I got quicker as time went on. I got held up far too long on 20a because I had had misspelled PRESTO as PRESTS. This made 20a _ S _ F and that totally flummoxed me until my glacial slow realisation came.
However, 11d was my undoing. I put DIAPERS as that’s all I could think of. Once I came here I could have slapped myself. So no candy bar for me today.
First Lap: 5
Answered without help: 19 (1 incorrect)
Answered with help: 5
DNF: Nil
Time: 42:22
A real struggle and, in the end, too hard for me. Most of the SW corner, particularly, took absolutely ages to fill and I never did solve the intersecting _O__ and C_I__.
I gave up after 50 minutes with those two missing and a few others unparsed. Not like the usual Mara.
Many thanks to Doofers for the blog.
7 clues solved in 20 minutes – still don’t understand the solution to 8ac?
Deadly/Mortal (as in Wound or Sin), constructed from Moral/Message (. . .the moral of this story), spread out (lengthened) by the insertion of ‘t’ for time (standard abreviation)
DNF.
Gave up after 10 minutes with 2 clues done.
Far too hard for a so called “Quick Cryptic”.
Dnf…
Incredibly slow and then couldn’t get the SW corner. 15dn “Chief” and 11dn “Drawers” seem blatantly obvious now, but I had a complete mind blank when I came to them. Similarly, I couldn’t get “By Jove” out of my head for 10ac. I’m guessing the “spell” element of 9ac was done purely for surface alliteration, as I think “Magic” would work better.
FOI – 2dn “Inferno”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 9ac “Horse Racing” – nice surface.
Thanks as usual!
I had By Jove right until almost the end (even though I struggled to parse it).
Another tricky one. Cheated by revealing the first letter of WOLF, which then led to CHIEF. I parsed MY WORD as ‘pledge I give/have’ and also ‘I say’ but wasn’t totally convinced. Never did parse MORTAL – thanks D. Was finding it all a little dry until COD ROCK AND ROLL appeared. Many thanks both.