Time: 09:11
A good Pedro puzzle – enough tricky clues to make this more than a breeze, particularly getting the last few in.
Thanks to Pedro
Definitions underlined in bold, deletions and letters in wordplay not appearing in answer indicated by strikethrough.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Salad vegetable right with a serving of food (6) |
| RADISH – R (‘right’) A (‘a’) DISH (‘serving of food’) | |
| 5 | Father embracing a deity in eastern temple (6) |
| PAGODA – PA (‘Father’) containing (’embracing’) A (‘a’) GOD (‘deity’)
I liked the surface all the more for its simplicity. |
|
| 8 | Scattered pieces of paper etc? Not if tidied up (8) |
| CONFETTI – Anagram (‘tidied up’) of ETC NOT IF
Another natural surface making up an extended definition. |
|
| 9 | Bungle in leaving cake (4) |
| MUFF – MUFF MUFF as a noun or verb. I became stuck on Eton mess which is not a cake. As I remember, the usual muffins here years ago were the bread-based English ones but the American variety now seems to have taken over as the default muffin and “English muffin” is noted as North American English in Oxford Dictionaries and Collins. |
|
| 10 | Nothing runs, nothing, after size reduced by 50 per cent (4) |
| ZERO – R (‘runs’) O (‘nothing’) following (‘after’) |
|
| 11 | Dramatic departure involving leader of Conservatives (8) |
| EXCITING – EXITING (‘departure’) containing (‘involving’) C EXITING as a noun, though EXIT by itself would usually do. |
|
| 12 | Cold aboard lorry, very cold (6) |
| ARCTIC – C (‘Cold’) contained in (‘aboard’) ARTIC (‘lorry’)
What in these parts we would call just a plain old “truck” is known as a ‘lorry’ or an ARTIC (short for “articulated lorry”) in the UK. |
|
| 14 | Vegetable placed in stewpot at once (6) |
| POTATO – Hidden in (‘placed in’) stewPOT AT Once
Maybe not as healthy as 1a but tastes much better. |
|
| 16 | Certain to get behind request for amusement (8) |
| PLEASURE – SURE (‘Certain’) following (‘to get behind’) PLEA (‘request’) | |
| 18 | What thief will do in prison (4) |
| NICK – Double definition
One of the many colloquial terms for ‘prison’ beloved of our setters. |
|
| 20 | Programmer’s favourite source of coffee? (4) |
| JAVA – Double definition
The computer programming language or the island of Indonesia, one place where coffee beans are grown. |
|
| 21 | I travel freely after November period (8) |
| INTERVAL – Anagram (‘freely’) of I TRAVEL following (‘after’) N (‘November’) | |
| 23 | Silent film star ruined no take (6) |
| KEATON – Anagram (‘ruined’) of NO TAKE
I don’t think this refers to a mute Annie Hall. |
|
| 24 | Puzzle to act as inspiration? (6) |
| BEMUSE – Definition with cryptic hint: to BE a MUSE (‘act as inspiration?’) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Love party to occupy most of region (5) |
| ADORE – DO (‘party’) contained in (‘to occupy) ARE |
|
| 3 | Leading popular promenade (2,5) |
| IN FRONT – IN (‘popular’) FRONT (‘promenade’)
FRONT for ‘promenade’ as in “a paved public walk, typically along the sea front at a resort” (Oxford Dictionaries). |
|
| 4 | Sexy husband on bed, topless (3) |
| HOT – H (‘Husband’) Made it past the censors – very naughty. |
|
| 5 | Law has intellectual property left in control of royalty (9) |
| PRINCIPLE – IP (‘intellectual property’) L (‘left’) contained in (‘in control of’) PRINCE (‘royalty’)
A PRINCE being an example of ‘royalty’. |
|
| 6 | Range that’s good with a stomach being upset (5) |
| GAMUT – G (‘good’) A (‘a’) then MUT, a reversal (‘upset’) of TUM (‘stomach’) | |
| 7 | Finished entertainment in December, heading for theatre (7) |
| DEFUNCT – FUN (‘entertainment’) contained in (‘in’) DEC (‘December’) then T My LOI. I was thinking about something to do with Christmas festivities. |
|
| 11 | Ruling out our group in revised lexicon (9) |
| EXCLUSION – US (‘our group’) contained in (‘in’) anagram (‘revised’) of LEXICON | |
| 13 | New record regarding rental agreement (7) |
| RELEASE – RE (‘regarding’) LEASE (‘rental agreement’)
A RELEASE implying that a new record has become available. |
|
| 15 | Tot’s first tucking into light brown liquor? Childish rage (7) |
| TANTRUM – T Oh joy. |
|
| 17 | Change promotional material, appending a point (5) |
| ADAPT – AD (‘promotional material’) then (‘appending’) A (‘a’) PT (‘point’) | |
| 19 | Opening for college girl in group of students (5) |
| CLASS – C |
|
| 22 | Bathroom item with short pipe (3) |
| TUB – TUB |
|
7:25
Pretty straightforward. DNK FRONT. NICK LOI; I can never remember all the meanings of the word.
15 minutes as far as I went, but this was a DNF as I missed out on JAVA. I checked Chambers Word Wizard to see if it was worth doing an alphabet trawl, but when it told me there were 87 possibilities to fit ?A?A I decided life is too short and gave up on the puzzle.
We had “Island language for “coffee” (4)” from Pedro in #2841 – 23 Nov 2024. I’m somewhat amused to see you wrote “Chambers Word Wizard offers 87 options for ?A?A and there was no way I was going to plough through all of those, let alone attempt a trawl of my own mental resources.” Bad luck Jack but, as you say, sometimes life’s too short.
I did something similar and just shoved in Fava – well it’s a bean at least linguistically. Couldn’t get Ada programming language out of my head; it didn’t help.
Couldn’t get MUFF(IN) so a DNF in about 12, thanks BR and Pedro.
Another MUFF victim – I did get there but it took an age. The main problem was weirdly putting in ‘mess’ – like an Eton Mess but with no other redeeming features. That made DEFUNCT hard and it took much too long to realise some of the checkers could be wrong – once the F was there, in it went. Ended up all green in 11.28.
14:51 for me, which is 10 mins under my average. I was on the wavelength today, unlike yesterday. Last clues in GAMUT and MUFF. I couldn’t get Duff out of my head, but that’s pudding and not cake, and wouldn’t parse anyway. Many thanks BR and Pedro.
Second day of a potential first ever sub 10 before being held up right at the end, like others, muff and defunct were the culprits, with the latter being a write in once the f appeared.
Very enjoyable, thanks Pedro, like bemuse best
Thanks BR
When first thinking about what thieves do in prison I hesitated between “time” and “bird”, and opted for the former. This caused me no end of head scratching when doing the downs, since I was left with M-A-S at 19d. Then I saw that thanks to TANTRUM “time” couldn’t be right, and sorted myself out.
Surprised to come here and find this was Pedro, whom I often find quite tricky. This one yielded all the acrosses bar LOI EXCITING and JAVA at first pass, and a regulation 07:32 finish. I did like CONFETTI, very good.
Many thanks Pedro and Bletchers.
Fairly straightforward apart from the NE where the GAMUT, MUFF, DEFUNCT and PRINCIPLE caused me a few headaches.
Started with RADISH and finished with EXCITING in 7.26.
Thanks to BR and Pedro
8:58, but could have been much faster except that I had Tap for TUB and that made BEMUSE impossible until I revisited it. No excuse, as I knew Tap didn’t parse even as I put it in. Even after correcting it though, I took time to see BEMUSE – “to act as” did not immediately say “be” to me.
Otherwise a rapid run through a very nice puzzle – when the J, X and Z appeared I wondered about a pangram, but as well as no Q there is no W or Y either.
Many thanks BR for the blog.
16 in 20 minutes. Java pretty simple as I’m working on my website. Muff – let’s not go there….
Didn’t take long enough to decode three Ikea clues. I do find Pedro quite difficult usually.
Thanks BR and P
Harder than it appeared at first. I had a similar hiccup to Cedric regarding TUB and BEMUSE and wasted too long seeing my LOI JAVA because of a stupid typo in RELEASE.
I don’t know why I often find it so difficult to see a typo in a down answer.
MUFF and DEFUNCT took a while, too
In the end, I took 17.58, parsed. At least this was an improvement on my last Pedro.
Thanks to Pedro and BR.
4:44 finishing with MUFF and GAMUT. Neat puzzle. Thank-you Pedro and BR.
Got badly held up by the DEFUNCT/MUFF intersection, but still happy enough with 13:04.
Pi ❤️
I got the defunct muff but couldn’t adapt java … 16:20
Not a QTPi
Ta BRAP
17:29 – not bad for me. Struggled to see MUFF or parse GAMUT (kept thinking that STOMACH = GUT, so what was AM?). LOI JAVA – not into computers really. A good QC I thought.
Good puzzle. Yes, a reasonable speed but slow on DEFUNCT until MUFF appeared. Then stuck on 20a so was obliged to check CCD for LOI JAVA.
I had to change Tap to TUB after solving BEMUSE (COD).
Also liked CONFETTI, GAMUT and PAGODA, having once lived in Pagoda Avenue.
Vaguely remember Buster KEATON.
Thanks vm, BR.
Enjoyed this – thanks again for a sensible puzzle. I wonder whether the word nick is one of those words where if people use it often enough in one sense, it takes on that meaning. The ‘nick’ was always the ‘police station’ when I was growing up. ‘You’re nicked’ meant that you were arrested and could expect to be taken there. If you were guilty you might end up in ‘clink’.
New world record for me of 14:17. No surprise as that’s only the 2nd one I’ve finished (sans aides)
Congratulations!
Well done!
Good work! 🏆
That’s a good time.
Hooray! Not only finished (POI DEFUNCT, so LOI MUFF, not Mess), but also continued the battle with dAtA, just not good enough, till Mrs M’s final Indonesian PDM JAVA. Thanks, Pedro for a good puzzle, and BR.
4:49
Flying start with only a few pauses for thought (PRINCIPLE, EXCLUSION). No problem with JAVA having worked in IT for forty years – for a long while around 20 years ago, it was JAVA-this and JAVA-that – probably very lucrative to get into if you’re one of the early adopters, but before much time had passed, all programmers were using it and salaries reduced to much, much lower levels.
Thanks BR and Pedro
Remember when I was a mainframe programmer, one of the lads left circa 1996 to become a web developer quite possibly to go learn Java. There was a bit of scepticism about that decision (the first time I ever even went on the internet was Nov 1997) but seems like he made a good call.
Interesting, thank you.
7:13 for the solve. Only second time I’ve ever been sub-10 with a Pedro but just missed a Setter’s Best as the other was six seconds quicker. If I could have unravelled INTERVAL quicker that might have been the difference. Last minute spent up in the NE on DEFUNCT, MUFF, GAMUT, EXCITING (LOI).
Thanks to BR and Pedro
Good time.
11:11
I fell in the TIME trap for 18a, which slowed down getting the rest of the SE corner. I then wasted time trying to parse TAP before eventually spotting TUB, leaving BEMUSE as my LOI.
Thanks BR and Pedro
From RADISH to KEATON in 5:56, briefly held up by STIR for NICK until TANTRUM and CLASS showed me the error of my ways. Thanks Pedro and BR.
13:58
A rare solving of 1a on the first pass, and an enjoyable solve…
… right up to the point where I sat staring at my LOI drawing a total blank.
Went and made a coffee, looked again, was about to throw the towel in when ‘java script’ popped into my head from nowhere – Phew!
A very nice QC.
FOI: RADISH
LOI: JAVA
COD: BEMUSE
Thanks to Pedro and BR
I found this one tricky but enjoyable. I started very slow but as time went on I warmed up and the answers were coming in quite steady. Didn’t need too much help with this one. However, my last one in was 20a for which I had _A_A. All I could think of was DATA. I was stuck on it for so long that I eventually entered DATA convinced it was probably incorrect, but hoping perhaps I would be wrong in thinking it was wrong.
I did have TAP for a bathroom fitting for a while, but when I saw BEMUSE I had to think again. TUB was the only other word I could think of.
So a completion but with one wrong answer. I don’t count that as a DNF as, although I had one wrong answer, I did complete the puzzle.
First Lap: 5
Answered (no help): 23
Answered (with help): 2
Incorrect: 1
DNF: Nil
Time: 34:46
No real problems. Put in TAP(E) initially but it didn’t parse nicely so the penny dropped and TUB went in after a bit more thought. Never been a fan of American ‘muffins’ which are rather nasty, sweet, floury cupcakes in a paper case which frequently accompany the coffee near the exit door of roadside motels. I invariably regret taking one, most of which languishes on the centre console until I find somewhere suitable to dispose it. That said, all done in 15 mins which is very pleasing.
Thanks Bletch and Pedro.
It’s true about American muffins! It seems to me they’ve gone horribly wrong in my lifetime. Or I just grew up and stopped liking them, always possible. The number that end up in the trash must be phenomenal.
A bit too easy for my liking. I prefer to be challenged, which Pedro has done until now. I can’t see the point of a puzzle you can dash off with barely a pause.
Some people are doing these crosswords to learn the skill. If you are at the top of the curve what is the point of doing them when there is a more challenging crossword on the back page!
I can see your point, but those of us who are still learning found a lot to like. Today’s 15×15, on the other hand, is killing me.
Remember that the objective of the QC is to be a stepping stone to the 15×15. There are plenty of solvers, I expect, like Banana who commented above, who will rejoice and be encouraged by being able to finish a less challenging crossword. Furthermore, there are many elite solvers who do the QC on a daily basis. Maybe they are doing it just as a warm-up to doing the 15×15. But maybe, like other experienced solvers (in which I include myself), they do them to appreciate the skill and wit of the setter and only wistfully sigh that the pleasure sometimes is over too soon.
Learner here who was ridiculously pleased with a 22.45 time so perhaps this QC was aimed more at my level. Thanks to Pedro and Bletchley
I made a proper mess of this one with a big fat DNF after 15 minutes. My first mistake was to put in TIME instead of NICK for 18ac, but I at least rectified that after TANTRUM was solved. Sometimes it’s the simple ones that get you, and I got no further than the unparsed TAP for 22dn which made 24 unsolvable. I even failed to get 20ac where I put in FAVA (I must have been thinking of Hannibal Lecter!) even though JAVA was not unknown to me in computer language. Oh well, there’s always tomorrow.
Tried LOO(P) for PIPE ( in lieu of TUB).. (yes, I know, not really a pipe…but those in the zone speak of bowel loops..and it’s a pipe of sorts…and I took it too far). That slowed things for a bit.
Quite early with DEFUNCT but very slow with MUFF – and ARCTIC took way longer than it should have. GAMUT also slow. Thought ZERO very nice.
Much enjoyed and thanks to Pedro and BR.
Crikey! All done and fully parsed in just 13 minutes which, whilst not a PB, is extremely fast for me. Yesterday (apart from my LOI – CANAPÉ) was similar (14 minutes), so I may need to invest in a seat belt from now on. Two genuine QCs already this week. Good stuff!
RADISH and PAGODA went straight in, as did four of their six dependants. From there, I worked my way down the grid and only really had to come back up for PRINCIPLE and EXCITING.
I was slightly delayed at the end by mis-biffing Tap (instead of TUB), but BEMUSE helped sort that out, and JAVA required an alphabet trawl.
Many thanks to BR and Pedro.
If my stats are anything to go by that’s probably a Pedro PB for you. I’ve only previously been sub-13 six times with Pedro and three of those are 12’ers.
Thank you for the stat, LP. As you know I ditched my records a year or so ago, so I can’t verify that. However, I do know that I have only ever recorded a handful of faster times.
Very good!
Like Templar and Andy Pandy, I had a pretty confident TIME at 18a. So I was slowed down a bit by that.
And I was slow at the end with LOI TUB; couldn’t think of a word for pipe. Needed INTERVAL -my POI.
Otherwise no real problems and home in 10 minutes.
I thought this QC was fine overall. COD to INTERVAL.
David
I found this one to be on the friendly side for a Pedro puzzle, finishing in 9:45. Having read the comments I think I was fortunate not to get bogged down in DEFUNCT / MUFF territory.
Thank you for the blog!
This went in fairly smoothly. 1a RADISH was a write in to start off with but 2d ADORE was my penultimate solve as I was looking at the wrong end of the clue for the definition. My LOI JAVA pushed me over seven minutes 7:01. Thanks BR
10.39. Held up on Java as I’m not interested in computing.
6:05 which is either a personal best or something very close to it. Nice puzzle. I wasted a few seconds biffing TAP for 22d and then failing to make 24a work before seeing my mistake. MUFF was LOI.
As a programmer, Java is very much not my favourite!
I know that a muffin is a cake, but I still think of it as a bready comestible for toasting over an open fire. I needed SLOI DEFUNCT before the PDM.
FOI RADISH
LOI MUFF
COD BEMUSE
TIME 3:08
A good start across the top and reasonable progress thereafter, bar a hiccup over Time at 18ac that Tantrum soon sorted. I also had Lava (no idea) for the programming language, but a nagging doubt eventually turned up the missing J.
All that ‘just’left me with the Muff/Defunct crossing around the 15min mark. A tentative Mess and thoughts of Christmas activities occupied the next couple of minutes, before the mule-less Muff(in) made Defunct obvious in time for a comfortable sub-20. Not too bad for a Pedro.
CoD to my back in action Bemuse. Invariant
Still not sure about “Muff” – never really heard it in the context of “bungle”.
. . .he muffed his lines on stage ?
But I agree, not the most obvious synonym.
Isn’t that fluffed?
Being very specific, in the NFL if a player messes up catching the ball when it has been punted to them and drops it, that is known as a muff eg “he muffed the punt”.
clean solve for me at 6:29 – pleased to say that this no longer qualifies as a top 10 time for me! I am surely getting the hang of it I just need to be better and overcoming breezeblocks when they do arise.
I was interested to see the blogger refer to “round these parts” as the US. It got me thinking – where are the majority of bloggers and commenters in t4t from? I had always assumed UK!
thanks to blogger and setter
Sorry for any misunderstanding; perhaps I’ve watched too many US TV programmes over the years and have almost inevitably picked up some of the lingo. I come from a country which has the same (upper case) letters in its three-letter abbreviation as the US of A but in a different order. In crosswords parlance in fact it’s been “cycled”.
Lol.
Duh! Of course they call lorrys trucks in Australia too
I initially put in TIFF(in) rather than MUFF(in). 35 mins for me which is possibly my quickest ever – perhaps I’m improving? LOI JAVA which took over 5 mins.
Cripes! I wish I’d timed this carefully, I might have had a rare foray out of the SCC today!! More or less a slow and steady top to bottom solve. Helped by knowing JAVA as a computer language and MUFFIN as a sort of cake (oh no it’s not!). Thanks Pedro for a lovely (for me) QC.
PS When do we get MUFFIN as a mule 😂🤣
Those of us of advanced years will probably have watched the puppet Muffin the Mule on children’s television, presented by Annette Mills (elder sister of actor John).
16 mins. A rare 1 ac write in, but moved quickly onto the bottom half after not getting much else. That helped as I worked steadily back up the grid. NE corner the trickiest for me with defunct, muff and gamut taking a while. Another who was thinking “where does the “am” come from?” in 6d. Enjoyed this one.
FOI Radish
LOI Gamut
COD Confetti
Thanks Pedro and BR
Lovely QC. No hold-ups apart from EXCITING/EXCLUSION. COD to HOT 😁 Thanks both.
17 clues solved in 20 minutes. Definitely improving but some way to go.
Took me ages to get to TUB (could only think of tap) and therefore also had trouble with BEMUSE. Finally gave up on JAVA so a DNF. Which is a shame, since it was an enjoyable crossword.
7.25 Exactly 1K. The solve felt plodding but I was quicker than usual. Finished with GAMUT, MUFF and EXCITING. Thanks BR and Pedro.
8:55 for me, a second sub-10 in a row, which feels like a first. Started with RADISH, ended with MUFF, despite an internal “that’s not a cake” grumble.
Thanks to Pedro and BR.
10 mins…
Best time for a while, and quite surprising considering it was a Pedro. Only hiccup was originally putting “Excluding” for 11dn and getting hung up on 9ac “Muff”
FOI – 1ac “Radish”
LOI – 9ac “Muff”
COD – 7dn “Defunct”
Thanks as usual!
Like yesterday, a brisk start and medium-paced middle, but MUFF and DEFUNCT took me ages: getting the former before the latter. Does the VAT man agree that muffin is a cake and not a bread snack? Anyway, another fun and satisfying puzzle with lots to like: thank you!
I had no problem with JAVA but don’t see why it’s described as a favourite. And I didn’t know IP as an abbreviation of ‘Intellectual Property’; it’s familiar for ‘Internet Protocol’.
As Dr Jack said above it is not the favourite of all computer programmers, but it probably is for those who make a living out of coding in it. More prosaically, it is the only programming language, as far as I know, that is named after a place that grows coffee beans.
Slow getting into the site today due to a recurrence of 404 errors. We were quite fast though, finishing in 7:43 with LOI DEFUNCT. Thanks to BR and Pedro.
09:50. the NE corner was quite hard – I had to carefully work my way into MUFF and then DEFUNCT. good challenge and amusing to solve