9:12. That’s my slowest Quickie for a while. So was it a tough one or did I just drop the ball? Discuss.
Wait, wait, I just saw something!!! There was a quirky element with the 4-letter answers, like one of those word puzzles where you have to change one letter at a time:
WORK, WORE, SORE, SOLE, ROLE, RULE
Didn’t see it whilst solving but, Dear Reader, this marks the first time I’ve ever noticed one of these things without having it pointed out to me. What a moment.
Hope you enjoyed the puzzle.
(In the clues, definitions are underlined and anagram indicators are in bold italics. In the explanations (ABC)* indicates an anagram of abc. Deletions and other devices are indicated accordingly, I hope).
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Hostile political period beginning to linger in Anglo-Icelandic dispute (4,3) |
| COLD WAR – L (beginning to Linger) in COD WAR (Anglo-Icelandic dispute)
Northern Europe’s version of the Emu Wars I guess. I’d rather fight a cod than an emu though. |
|
| 7 | Where seeds could be enjoying continued success (2,1,4) |
| ON A ROLL – Double definition
Seeds could be, and often are, on a roll. |
|
| 9 | Ban business qualification run in eg capital of Oman (7) |
| EMBARGO – [MBA (business qualification) + R (run)] in EG + O (capital of Oman) | |
| 10 | The most daring juxtaposition of two underwear items (7) |
| BRAVEST – BRA (underwear item) + VEST (underwear item) | |
| 11 | Irritable Greek god flipped (4) |
| SORE – EROS (Greek god) reversed (flipped) | |
| 12 | Buffoon Republican bitten by healthy baby, one of many (9) |
| HARLEQUIN – R (Republican) “bitten by” HALE (healthy) + QUIN (baby, one of many)
They’re all clowns to me. |
|
| 14 | Maybe watch emcee I tip extravagantly (9) |
| TIMEPIECE – (EMCEE I TIP)* | |
| 16 | Only small exclamation of approval in 8? (4) |
| SOLE – S (small) + OLE (expression of approval in Latin America)
“8” is a reference to the answer at 8dn. Some people don’t like cross-reference clues, as we’ll no doubt discover in the comments. |
|
| 17 | Chocolate bar leads to burst in calories relating to strenuous exercise (7) |
| AEROBIC – AERO (chocolate bar) + BIC [leads to (first letters of) Burst In Calories] | |
| 20 | Recalled excerpt from Puccini duo heralding escape artist (7) |
| HOUDINI – Reverse hidden in (recalled excerpt from) puccINI DUO Heralding | |
| 21 | Second learner trapped in empty, flashy display (7) |
| SPLURGE – S (second) + L (learner) in PURGE (empty) | |
| 22 | Ranges of colours in fancy carpets (7) |
| SPECTRA – (CARPETS)* | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Chasers distributed with sweet and savoury snacks (6,6) |
| CHEESE STRAWS – (CHASERS + SWEET)*
Some type of food apparently. |
|
| 2 | Chopped up extremely unusual Burman poisonous tree (8) |
| LABURNUM – [UL (“extremely” UnusuaL) + BURMAN]*
I wasn’t familiar with the tree but it was guessable from the anagrist and the checkers. Although I guess it could have been LUBARNUM. |
|
| 3 | Labour function (4) |
| WORK – Double definition | |
| 4 | Vehicle protection against eg Skippy, boar or bats (3,3) |
| ROO BAR – (BOAR OR)*
An unfortunate necessity for large vehicles driving in the country at night. A pain in the **** in urban carparks. |
|
| 5 | Jokes about article on East Asian language (8) |
| JAPANESE – [JAPES (jokes) “about” AN (article)] + E (East) | |
| 6 | Displayed possible choice of bridge partners (4) |
| WORE – W (West) OR E (East)
Players in bridge (the card game) are generally designated as N, S , E and W. Which may be news to some of you. |
|
| 8 | New in Malta, Heather’s country collection? (5,7) |
| LATIN AMERICA – (IN MALTA)* + ERICA (heather) | |
| 12 | German family served up food, dad interrupting mum (8) |
| HAPSBURG – GRUB (food) + SPAH [PA (dad) “interrupting” SH (mum)] all reversed (served up)
Austrian, German, whatever. I don’t really understand royal stuff, but it appears they made their presence felt all over the place. Tough clue for a Quickie imho. |
|
| 13 | Opponent of Irish Home Rule is tense following agreement (8) |
| UNIONIST – IS + T (tense) following UNION (agreement) | |
| 15 | Vividly imprints drawings after first pair are scrapped (6) |
| ETCHES – |
|
| 18 | Part of some Byelorussian uprising (4) |
| ROLE – Reverse (uprising) hidden (some) in byELORussian
When you see a word as bizarrely obscure as Byelorussian in a clue, start looking for a hidden. |
|
| 19 | Regret introducing Liberal government (4) |
| RULE – RUE (regret) “introducing” L (Liberal) | |
The puzzle was definitely a bit on the chewy side. While I could biff some, many clues required a bit of analysis – harlequin, roo bar, splurge, cold war, cheese straws. I did biff Hapsburg, Latin America, Japanese, embargo. Curiously, I had heard of laburnum.
Time: 10:00
13 minutes with HAPSBURG as my LOI. Undoubtedly Germanic, but one tends to think Austria-Hungary first when the subject comes up so I was a bit slow to think of the name. It’s as well the P was checked as the family can also be spelt with a B.
The P forms part of the wordplay as well.
I see what you did there, Galspray (6d).
Pi ❤️
I found this easier that some of Cheeko’s offerings and educational as well. I never realised that HARLEQUIN meant buffoon, but it helps to explain how the team I follow is playing at the moment.
Started with COD COLD WAR and finished with WORE in 7.32 but with HAPSBURG unparsed.
Thanks to Galspray and Cheeko
Dnf…
At least 5 not completed. From reviewing the blog above, there are some that feel beyond QC level, and I’m not sure I would have got even with more time – 12dn “Hapsburg” and 12ac “Harleqin” come to mind. I also put “Pole” for 6dn.
Don’t mind some tough clues – but not sure the balance was right on this.
FOI – 1ac “Cold War”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 17ac “Aerobic”
Thanks as usual!
6:08 so, yes, on the chewy side, but not unduly so to my mind. LOI ON A ROLL as I was thinking of sowing the seeds to start. I need the H from HARLEQUIN to see the German family. Thank-you Cheeko for the mental workout and Galspray for the blog… and spotting the 4-letter word device, which I had missed, despite it appearing in yesterday’s Concise.
So far beyond me. I note that there are 2 flora anagrams that could fit in 2D but only one is poisonous
A tough end to the week that was weird enough in parts to leave me wondering about Cheeko’s definition of a QC. I thought I had got to grips with Cheeko following his last couple of offerings but clearly not. Some very good clues but too uneven for me.
I thought I was ON A ROLL early on but took too long to see ETCHES, HARLEQUIN, LATIN AMERICA (good clue), SOLE. I came to a halt with WORE and biffed it with fingers crossed.
I finished 3 mins into the SCC – it has been a miserable few days for me after an excellent start on Monday, thanks to Rongo.
Thanks to Galspray for some parsing that I simply skated over whilst solving (e.g. HAPSBURG). Roll on next week!
I fear that some potential newer recruits to QC solving may have been frightened away by the last 3 or 4 this week.
‘Which may be news to some of you’ – very good! Nice crossword, 8 mins, and a perfectly pitched QC in my book, but, as always, opinions will vary.
Thanks Cheeko and galspray
8:53
Nice puzzle with some interesting words – fortunately had heard of LABURNUM, poisonous yellow trees, and HAPSBURG, but didn’t know they were German. Saw the 4-letter WORK to RULE device early on, so the remaining four letter clues were a little easier to mop up.
Thanks Galspray and Cheeko
I knew LABURNAM as my Dad planted some in our garden when I was a youngster. I thought this was a tough puzzle and was held up by the HAPSBURG/HARLEQUIN crossing. Over target again at 11:29. Thanks Cheeko and Galspray.
Easily the best Quickie of the past week, with brilliant surfaces and all workable just by following the clueing instructions. So, so much better than yesterday’s – no biffing required and no dodgy definitions. Loved AEROBIC, EMBARGO and HAPSBURG, but all were excellent, especially the changing letter Nina, which I, of course, missed. Thanks, Cheeko and Gallers.
14:57 for the solve. A little bit harder than my Jan average which is just below thirteen mins. Last couple of mins spent with ON-A-ROLL / WORE but could easily have been stumped by HARLEQUIN/UNIONIST pairing. Definitely potential for a slow solve here.
If I recall correctly (I was a small child in the 70s), the Cod Wars were a ‘battle’ for fishing rights between the UK and Iceland; whereas wikipedia tells me the Emu Wars were about the Australian army culling the emu population. Unfortunately that didn’t stop Rod Hull.
Pleased to finally see a sports science related clue in AEROBIC although I’d dispute it as being strenuous. Aerobic exercise shouldn’t have you breaking sweat or out of breath e.g. literally a walk in the park; it’s when you go anaerobic that it’ll start to get strenuous. Obviously no-one else on here gives a jot about this pedancy!
Off to run aerobically. Too late to get out of bed for parkrun but maybe I’ll do a 5K anyway.
Thanks to Galspray and Cheeko
As a cyclist before my injury I was well into polarised training, aerobic versus anaerobic although I could never get my head round the nomenclature MAP for maximal aerobic power when clearly at the end of a ramp test one is definitely anaerobic.
If you know any triathletes please point them at my new eBook “Aero testing in the Real World”. They can find me as FloatAero on Facebook and float_aero on Instagram and X… thanks Rob
Assuming it’s the same as MAP, I was stumped for a long time by why VO2max is considered an aerobic limit when there is clearly a significant anaerobic contribution.
I believe the answer lies in the physiology and that for most people when they do a VO2max test it’s really a Peak VO2 value they obtain; the oxygen uptake is still increasing but other limiting factors (e.g. anaerobic buildup due to low threshold) cause the subject to terminate the test.
If, however, you put an elite runner on a treadmill their oxygen uptake rises until a certain point and then stops increasing yet they continue to run faster. That’s a genuine VO2max – they physiologically simply can’t consume / utilise more oxygen.
If I meet any triathletes I’ll let them know. I think Mr Random (SomeRandomChap) did a bit in the past and used to coach so he may be someone for you to mention this to.
DNF. Well beaten. Never considered HARLEQUIN as a buffoon, or HAPSBURG as Germans.
I thought you were one of the bloggers? What would you have done if on duty for this one?
14 relatively quickly.
I should have got wore given that I was a bridge player and I should have spotted spectra given that I was a physics major.
I knew Laburnum from a crescent on the estate where I grew up. The crescent combined with a section of road completing the loop served as a velodrome.
Thanks G and C
12:21
Definitely on the harder end of the scale. LOI was SPLURGE. No problem defining HAPSBURGs as German royals, since the Holy Roman Empire included all of Germany, although Burgundian, Spanish, Austro-Hungarian etc would also have been valid.
Thanks Galspray and Cheeko
Clock stopped at 9.13, but I was delayed by the puzzle freezing on my iPad for a little while.
I shan’t disappoint Galspray. My LOI was the totally uncalled for x-ref clue. You won’t be at all surprised that I didn’t see the Nina – but at least this one didn’t cause a lot of forced obscurities
It’s as well it fell to our Antipodean mate to parse ROO BAR, since I only know these fittings as bull bars. It was an easy biff, as was HAPSBURG. My dyspraxia has always caused me a problem with reverse hiddens, but HOUDINI wasn’t too bad.
In my opinion the clueing of AERO as “chocolate bar” was unfair to non UK solvers.
FOI COLD WAR
LOI SOLE
COD ON A ROLL
TIME 4:40