Time: 13:45
A bit harder than usual for Teazel and I struggled to get going.
The answer to 2d described my (e)state well as I started this crossword. An enjoyable solve which was tricky enough to make me feel more up to speed at the end.
Thanks to Teazel
Definitions underlined in bold, deletions and letters in wordplay not occurring in answer indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 7 | Relative from America coming into a little money (6) |
| COUSIN – US (‘America’) contained in (‘coming into’) COIN (‘a little money’) | |
| 8 | European country’s condition (6) |
| ESTATE – E (‘European’) STATE (‘country’)
Entered from wordplay, not definition. I couldn’t think of ESTATE for ‘condition’ so had to look it up for the blog. In Oxford Dictionaries, this sense of ESTATE is noted as “ARCHAIC or LITERARY A particular, state, period or condition in life” with the example given being “the holy estate of matrimony”. Recognisable and not too obscure. |
|
| 9 | Legal transaction restraining remarkable achievement is frustrated (8) |
| DEFEATED – DEED (‘Legal transaction’) containing (‘restraining’) FEAT (‘remarkable achievement’) | |
| 10 | Ring put down to be returned (4) |
| DIAL – A reversal (‘to be returned’) of LAID (‘put down’) | |
| 11 | Pair of female creatures get a bit wet (6) |
| DAMPEN – DAM and PEN (‘Pair of female creatures’)
PEN for a female swan. |
|
| 13 | Mostly unaccompanied beginning to get forward (5) |
| ALONG – ALON |
|
| 14 | Short cloak and headgear (3) |
| CAP –CAP |
|
| 15 | Beat, plus wild energy (5) |
| PULSE – Anagram (‘wild’) of PLUS then E (‘energy’) | |
| 17 | Opening to pacify angry robber (6) |
| PIRATE – P |
|
| 19 | I don’t know the answer, but get through exam (4) |
| PASS – Double definition | |
| 20 | Predict crest of a wave (8) |
| FORECAST – Anagram (‘wave’) of CREST OF A
Simple but effective, with a novel anagram indicator which I don’t remember seeing before. |
|
| 22 | A horse falling off the boat? (6) |
| ASHORE – Anagram (‘falling’) of A HORSE | |
| 23 | New weapon is limited (6) |
| NARROW – N (‘New’) ARROW (‘weapon’) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Nothing to like particularly (4) |
| LOVE – Double definition | |
| 2 | A small piece of fruit skin lifted out (6) |
| ASLEEP – A (‘A’) S (‘small’) LEEP, a reversal (‘lifted’) of PEEL (‘piece of fruit skin’)
One up to Teazel for hiding the def so well. Looks nice and simple now but this fooled me and was my COD. |
|
| 3 | Popular position, for example (8) |
| INSTANCE – IN (‘Popular’) STANCE (‘position’) | |
| 4 | In part of garden, a tiny ball (4) |
| BEAD – A (‘a’) contained in (‘in’) BED (‘part of garden’) | |
| 5 | Boss with one old workshop (6) |
| STUDIO – STUD (‘boss’) I (‘one’) O (‘old’) | |
| 6 | Direct view taking in paintings upside-down (8) |
| STRAIGHT – SIGHT (‘view’) containing (‘taking in’) TRA, a reversal (‘upside-down’) of ART (‘paintings’) | |
| 12 | Appreciation of a seal pup swimming (8) |
| APPLAUSE – Anagram (‘swimming’) of A SEAL PUP | |
| 13 | Like some heirs to be easily understood (8) |
| APPARENT – Cryptic hint as in the term “heir apparent”
As intended, I spent a while wondering how an ‘heir’ could be a PARENT. |
|
| 16 | What may help some clueless ones? (6) |
| LESSON – Hidden (‘some’) in Very good; you could argue either for just ‘What may help’ or the whole clue (a partial &lit) as the definition. |
|
| 18 | String again in unprecedented quantity? (6) |
| RECORD – RE(-)CORD (‘String again’)
CORD here as a verb; a link with BEAD at 4d. |
|
| 20 | Illness mentioned, left the ground (4) |
| FLEW – Aural wordplay (‘mentioned’) of FLU (‘Illness’) | |
| 21 | Appear musical, for one (4) |
| SHOW – Double definition, the second a definition by example | |
This was hard work for a QC and I crept in a only few seconds within my 15 minute target. I looked twice at ‘condition / ESTATE’ but assumed it was a usage I’m not familiar with.
All the answers were simple words, and I had the knowledge needed to construct them, so I found this one pretty easy. Curiously, it was the straightforward bead and cousin that gave me the most trouble. I biffed forecast without seeing the anagram – that has to be it, right?
Time: 6:33
A tough Teazel, I thought. It took me about 11 minutes and that was a DNF because I couldn’t get LOVE. Possibly out of practice. Thanks BR and setter.
Yep SCC 21:37. Show Love Asleep Defeated me
TaBAT
With 4 minutes on the clock we were still trying to find our first answer. Cap got us going, then a gradual build up in speed until the last few fell easily in 21.35.
Loved lesson, very nice, and agree with BR that the definition for asleep was very well hidden. Talking of which, we also used a lot of time looking for hiddens that were not there!
Thanks Teazel and BR
Had to skip over five clues before ALONG got me going – then the next six all went in. I thought I showed impressive maturity to keep going once I got stuck. BEAD in a particular was satisfying to finally solve but DAMPEN and COUSIN were fun too. Didn’t understand FORECAST – thanks Bletchers for pointing out what was right in front of me. Ruined it all but not being able to spell APPARENT – knew I was taking a risk but the clue couldn’t help me! Not all green in 14.
22.12 with some clues swallowing minutes.
CAP was our first and then, like others, we were on our way… albeit slowly.
Tried to make ‘weed’ work ( wee, tiny)
Didn’t initially link stud with boss.
Some very clever, tricky clues, parsing of APPARENT, DAMPEN and ESTATE only understood post blog.
Made us work and all made sense, though for us, not quite as enjoyable as yesterday.
Thank you Teazel and Bletchley Reject.
Thanks BR. I needed your blog today as I didn’t know the definition of ESTATE and failed to parse FORECAST. I got nowhere in the NW so solved clockwise from the NE finishing with LOVE. For me COD is APPLAUSE just because I like the story telling. 8:34
5:48. LOI DIAL. Having the R to start, I spotted RECEDE in “unprecedented” while reading 18A, but then looked at the definition. CODE to FORECAST for the neat surface. Thank-you Teazel and BR.
I am going to say NHO that definition of ESTATE, I initially put it in from the wordplay, deleted it, then put it back when the crossers made it obvious. I’ve been to a few weddings in churches and I’ve either always been hungover or maybe not paying attention, because I’m pretty sure that whenever the “holy estate of matrimony” has been mentioned that I’ve heard “holy state of matrimony”.
Plodded, FOI CAP, then the left half was ok, then top right, but defeated by SE corner. Thanks, BR; I agree, never seen “wave” as an anagram indicator!
Thought of SHOW but couldn’t understand “for one”; surely it’s not needed?
It had to be DAMPEN but NHO the swan (assumed this was a Penelope), interesting, thanks.
15:56, and as that suggests I found this tough. Like others I was slow to get going, and again like others I did not know that definition of ESTATE – I would query our blogger’s “Recognisable and not too obscure” as for me it was definitely “Obscure and not too recognisable”. I also had a double-take with Forward = ALONG, not an obvious synonym to me though when I query a definition I usually get shown several examples, so I await with interest! But my biggest hold-up, and LOI, was LOVE – no obvious reason why, except that when one doesn’t see a DD, one simply doesn’t see it (and -O-E are among the most unhelpful of checkers to start a letter search with).
Many thanks BR for the blog.
We need to move the discussion along now, I think.
Collins offers this for along: “4. forward
the horse trotted along at a steady pace”.
It was tricky!
6:02 – spent 30 seconds staring at the straightforward LESSON for my LOI, why couldn’t I see that sooner!? But otherwise thought this was about average difficulty, and an enjoyable puzzle, despite the portcullis grid which I never love.
I quite enjoyed this but soon knew that it would be a test rather than a doddle. Teazel had no difficulty tipping me just over the line into the SCC. I was held up by PIRATE, RECORD, FORECAST (I didn’t twig the anagram indicator for a while). Liked STRAIGHT but needed a couple of crossers to see it.
Earlier posters have said it all.
Thanks, both.
A lot to untangle but got there in the end having filled up the bottom half of the grid before rising to the top (slowly). Wasn’t sure about ESTATE but it had to be. COD DAMPEN. Very clever. 29 minutes.
Thanks Bletch and Teaxel.
9.47
Can WAVE really work as an anagram indicator when it comes after the ‘grist? My excuse for spending ages deciding between FORETELL and FOREWARN, having not the slightest idea what was going on!
I had a Penguin copy of Andre Malraux’s “Man’s Estate” as a teenager so that one didn’t detain me too long. Most of the rest did, though, with lots of elliptical definitions. Got through it in 09:27 for an Uninspired Day.
Many thanks Teazel and Bletchers.
Enjoyable if a bit of a struggle today. Took a while to see that FORECAST was an anagram. Wasn’t sure I’d parsed ESTATE and ASLEEP correctly, but happy to see my thoughts confirmed in the blog. LOI DIAL. Thanks BR and Teazel.
My big win of the day was discovering that the name of the setter is available in the phone app – settings – puzzle info. I’ve been doing the puzzles on my phone for two years and I’d never looked in the settings before, not that knowing the setter helps me much unless it’s Oink.
A mere six today on the first pass.
I still don’t get 21 down. I thought solo but it doesn’t fit the with appear, but then neither does show in my opinion.
Thanks BR and Tezel
How about “The pattern shows/appears through the tracing paper”.
Looks like everyone thought this was too hard except the setter and the editor!
7:17
Some slightly chewy clues this morning, though none of the answers were unknown. Found myself at the end, lucky enough to stumble on COUSIN, which gave LOVE, and finally DEFEATED, where I couldn’t help wondering whether a DEED is a legal document detailing the outcome of a legal transaction rather than the transaction itself.
Thanks BR and Teazel
DNF disaster. Needed hints from CCD to finish and even had to reveal DEFEATED ( as indeed I was.) Also put Dual instead of DIAL.
Liked DAMPEN, ESTATE and PASS.
Thanks for vital blog, BR.
This was a bit chewy and I was distracted by my daughter chatting while I was solving. My FOI was CAP and I had to work at it to get moving. Eventually shrugged and put in FORECAST which seemed correct as it gave me RECORD and SHOW. Never saw the anagram. ESTATE took a while. BEAD, ASLEEP and DEFEATED finished the job. 10:36. Thanks Teazela and BR.
I was pretty sure I was in for a long slog with only two solved on my first pass of the across clues. Fortunately the down clues were more forgiving, but it seemed like slow progress. When all clues were finally solved with FLEW my LOI, I was surprised to see I had beaten my target at 9.26. It seemed so much harder than my time suggests.
Narrowly swerved yet another DNF, finally finishing in 19:13. I thought that FORECAST was lovely, very evocative.
But yes, I found it very difficult, to the extent that the last week and a half has felt like a punishment. Do we know whether Jason tests these out on less experienced solvers, as opposed to relying on the feedback of those who are good at crosswords?
Thank you for the blog!
Sigh. Eighth DNF in a row. This one, unlike yesterday’s (being a typo) was due to not being able to answer one of the clues (LOVE) which, on seeing the answer, was obvious.
I got estate purely because of the letters already there, but I too felt it was a bit too obscure. I’m not a fan of archaic words being in QCs.
Enjoyable but a little frustrating in places.
First Lap: 7
Answered: 20
Aided: 4
DNF: 1 (1d)
Time: 35:30
Stretchy but fair. My LOI was LESSON which seemed a bit of a stretch until I spotted the hidden. Well done Teasel.
COD was ASLEEP with STRAIGHT a close second.
Thanks for the blog BR.
Great xword thanks to Teazel and BR. Bottom half raced in with only a tentative “forecast” holding things up. Then a slower NE corner, then a slower still NW. I also thought it was the state of marriage, and with that example out of the way others are fairly thin on the ground. I also had a reservation about along but thought of an idea that I have to approve, if I go along with it I will take it forward.
A teaser from Teazel today. Thought I was on for a speedy solve but had a few little ones at the end that took a while to parse – ESTATE, DIAL and SHOW. So the cuppa got a bit cool, but I enjoyed the challenge.
Thanks Teazel and BR
DNF
Beaten by FLEW. Was left with that and SHOW after 15 minutes but couldn’t see either and had to resort to guessing. Got one but not the other.
My FOI should be sufficient to show that I had very little trouble in seeing this one off.
FOI ESTATE
LOI BEAD
COD FORECAST
TIME 3:36
Very slow today as a result of a tricky puzzle from Teazel together with an incipient head cold. I took ages to see the hidden at 16dn and even longer to realise that 22ac was an anagram. Never did spot the anagram at 20ac, just biffed it from the crossers. All correct in a glacial 30 minutes.
FOI – 14ac CAP
LOI – 9ac DEFEATED
COD – 13dn APPARENT
Thanks to Teazel and BR