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 ❤️
He’s a talent – no doubt about that.
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. (Edit: parksolve coming in at 40:07)
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.
Indeed I did (both), but alas no longer. However, I am still in touch with several triathletes and will alert them as requested.
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?
. I could have spent longer on it, and probably have cracked it. If not, I’d have been cracking open a crossword helper app. And would have admitted so if it was one I was blogging.
Bloggers are sometimes defeated. It’s most likely to happen the William and Jeremy, when the SNITCH on the Friday main puzzle is over 200.
Some of us bloggers would sometimes contact other bloggers if we’re stuck (especially in the early days of blogging, when there were no websites/apps to turn to). If we can’t work out the parsing, we can ask a friend, spend ten minutes or so thinking it out (I had to do that this week for a clue the solution to which was NORTHERN IRELAND), or simply throw it open to the regulars here. Once you’ve done the job for a long time, you realise that this is no loss of face. People like chipping in (of course), and the stratification between blogger and commenters is weakened – which I think is a good thing.
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
I have a dyspraxic niece but didn’t realise it affected writing as well as speech.
But surely it is HaBsburg? Oh, on checking, I now see the Anglicised ‘p’ is allowed. I am vaguely familiar with their history, though did not think of them as specifically German.
Anyway I solved it eventually. Also very slow on HARLEQUIN, UNIONIST, and LOI SPLURGE. I think of Harlequin as a sad clown rather than a Buffoon.
Biffed ROO BAR (not necessary in Canberra where we once lived).
Slow PDM LATIN AMERICA. FOI COLD WAR lulled me into hoping for an easy one. Liked WORE, BRAVEST, ON A ROLL, LABURNUM (attractive tree.)
Thanks vm, Galspray.
11.22 That was quite tough. SPLURGE, HARLEQUIN, HAPSBURG and WORE all delayed me. LATIN AMERICA was nice. Thanks galspray and Cheeko.
7.54
Didn’t quite know where I was going with it but HALE outside R and suddenly the answer appeared. Agree HAPSBURG and AERO were tricky.
Thanks Galspray and Cheeko.
Cold War and Cheese Straws were surprising write-ins, and when the NW quickly followed, I thought I was heading for a sub-20 Cheeko and a flying pig day. Sadly/inevitably a plausible (?) Save rather than Sole held up a straightforward Unionist (Grid says No!) for a long time.
Even with that sorted my last two, Harlequin and Hapsburg, put up a terrific fight, so I limped home just north of 25mins.
I would normally have been happy enough with that for a Cheeko, but instead it feels more like one that got away. CoD to Harlequin. Invariant
WORK to RULE … maybe the Setters are demanding a pay rise.
ROO-BAR??? For Pete’s sake. Talk about niche.
Cracking good puzzle, didn’t think it was really any harder than normal, except LOI HARLEQUIN. COD COLD WAR.
All done in 08:10 for a Decent Day. Many thanks gallers and His Cheekiness.
I think the more challenging QCs hit less proficient solvers disproportionately hard. Setters like Cheeko can cause many more DNFs and +20/30/40 minutes on average times down here, whereas our more proficient solvers may hardly notice the +20/30/40 seconds on their times.
This is not a reason for us never having to face tough challenges but, to maintain morale amongst us Random types, they shouldn’t come too frequently or consecutively.
This philosophy is well known among sports coaches, as picking up the pieces after their athlete has suffered a bad loss is part of their role. Speaking as a former swimming and triathlon coach, an average of one real toughie per week would seem about right to me.
Wholeheartedly agree.
I started well with COLD WAR, ON A ROLL and EMBARGO all going in within the first couple of minutes, but my rate of progress slowed and it became a real battle from around the halfway point.
My final half dozen in were JAPANESE (via JAvANESE, weirdly), HAPSBURG (alphabet trawled), SPLURGE (easy, once I had all the checkers), LATIN AMERICA (I always struggle with Latin plant names), HARLEQUIN (not really a buffoon in my book) and (embarrassingly, given I parsed the clue correctly very early) UNIONIST.
Probably best that I didn’t know the setter when I embarked on this QC, as I may well not have started if I’d known.
Time = 48-49 minutes.
Many times thanks to Galspray and Cheeko.
I went to watch HARLEQUINs v Leicester last weekend. Buffoons describes them perfectly.
Tee hee!
Thinking hats certainly needed to be on at times but all the more enjoyable for that. We finished in an about on par 13:01. We were delayed for a while by having to revisit ‘loyalist’ in 13d, which to me also works, in order to suit the by then apparent HARLEQUIN. LOI SOLE – like Galspray I was also anticipating more grumbles about cross references in the comments. Thanks, all.
I enjoyed the puzzle for about 12 minutes and then tried everything I could think of to get 6d and abandoned the attempt at 25 minutes. Oh damn the word ladder would have given it to me. And besides I don’t know why I was blind to it, not that hard. Maybe just fatigue after wrestling with the unknowns.
I can’t say I really understood COLD WAR but thought the phrase COD WAR both plausible and funny. Couldn’t account for the AERO in AEROBIC but it was clear enough. Apparently CHEESE STRAWS are common enough around here but I seem to have escaped contact with them throughout a longish life of enthusiastic eating. ROO BAR a completely unknown and very weird phrase, and what the heck is this Skippy anyway?
Thanks Cheeko and galspray.
Skippy was the marsupial equivalent of Flipper, with a catchier theme tune.
Thanks to you and youtube for the earworm.
20:10
I wish I’d spotted the Nina, I was held up by a few of those 4 letter words. Failed to parse LATIN AMERICA, but obvious from definition and checkers. LOI WORE.
Who knows how long – on a plane and between mouthfuls.
However – HARLEQUIN didn’t enter our heads
Himself knew JAPES for jokes – not I
Tried hard to parse IOTA in lieu of SOLE….. made life hard .
Familiar with LABURNUM there being arches in both Kew and in Richmond – though didn’t know they were poisonous. Himself keen to introduce LAUDANUM but it was not going to happen.
In the end – not everything happened and we had to reveal 2 letters to get us going again..
did not get SOLE.
Had fun though – and congratulations Galspray on seeing the clever connection between words. Currently, I only become aware of such delights through the sharp eyes of others.
Thank you CHEEKO
WORK TO RULE very clever. No problem with LABURNUM – we had a laburnum tree in our garden when I was a child and it was drummed into us how poisonous it was. Guessed ROO BAR as I know what damage can be caused by a Skippy in Oz. Gratified that my GK was up to the clues that required it. A tricky but enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Cheeko and Galspray.
Took my time over this having spotted that Cheeko was the compiler. All done in an over par 20:15 but with lots of un/semi-parsed answers.
Tricky but doable. Thanks to both.
I couldn’t finish this because I got completely stuck on 6d, but before turning to the answer, I saw Galspray’s comment about the nina, had another look, and – hey presto – WORE jumped out. But too late – I’ll admit to a DNF today.
Otherwise, I thought that was quite friendly – it would have been a sub-10 minute job. CHEESE STRAWS – yum. I liked this clue a lot, but 10a pipped it to the post for COD.
When the HAPSBURGS ruled Spain, they interbred so much they ended up with deformed jaws (among many other problems). That’s why the Spanish court started to lisp, in order to copy the king. (Thanks to a Spanish teacher for that nugget.)
9:44 but DNF
FOI Cold war LOI Wore (sort of) COD Bravest (that made me giggle, or synonym beginning with T!)
Thanks Cheeko and Galspray
I thought the biggie was quite friendly today, for those of you who might fancy having a go at a prize crossword. I did it in just under 25 minutes 😊
26 minutes but finally beaten by SPLURGE. Before that I found it mostly an enjoyable struggle.
I too didn’t know HARLEQUIN was a buffoon but worked it out from the clue.
Never parsed LATIN AMERICA or ROO BAR.
Overall I mostly don’t get on with the newer setters.
12:24 for me, with HARLEQUIN and HAPSBURG accounting for almost half of that. 7-year-old me awards my COD to BRAVEST.
Thanks to Cheeko and galspray.
A solid solve in 12:28, which is among my fastest for a puzzle by Cheeko. Delighted to see LABURNUM and even more pleased to see it with the correct spelling – our house is called Laburnum (and has a fine laburnum tree in the front garden), and you would be surprised by the range of spellings one gets: I’ve had all of Laburnam, Laburnham, Leburnam and even Labumum.
As for the rest of the puzzle, I learn today that a Harlequin is a buffoon, and that what I always thought were the Habsburgs can be spelled with a P. Those 2 clues apart, no real holdups.
Many thanks Galspray for the blog.
My thanks to Cheeko and galspray.
Yes, I found it a bit tricky. Also surprised to find that the Chambers cheater does not have Hapsburg, but my Cheating Machine (which I wasn’t using) did.
1a POI Cod War, there were more than one.
10a Bra & vest, super! I normally cringe a bit when bras are mentioned but this time, no.
12a Harlequin, COD, took me an age.
17a Aerobic, took a while, had forgotten aero bars. I suppose they are still made?
12a Hapsburg, although I failed O-level history even I know about them. Many were Holy Roman Emperors, and their lands included the Iberian peninsula, most of Germany (before unification), lots of Austria and Hungary, most of the Netherlands, south Italy and Sardinia. Charles V was the uncle of Katherine of Aragon and controlled the Pope, and firmly instructed the Pope not to allow Henry VIII’s divorce. The CofE might never have happened without him. He was also father of Philip of Spain who gave us the Armada.
Missed the Nina as always.