A most enjoyably straightforward offering from Teazel today. Lots of anagrams and double definitions, and no real sticking points. Time: 05:38
| Across |
| 8 |
Worker dismissed publicity material (4-3) |
|
HAND-OUT – HAND (worker) + OUT (dismissed) |
| 9 |
Existing part of daredevil act making a comeback (5) |
|
ALIVE – reverse hidden word |
| 10 |
Bit of sunshine enveloping home prone to wet weather (5) |
|
RAINY – RAY with IN inserted |
| 11 |
Meal for cooking involving part of leg (7) |
|
FEMORAL – anagram (‘cooking’) of MEAL FOR |
| 12 |
One grows up during pantomime (9) |
|
BEANSTALK – cryptic definition |
| 14 |
Suppress joke (3) |
|
GAG – double definition |
| 16 |
Dog returned, cleaner (3) |
|
MOP – POM backwards. Short for Pomeranian |
| 18 |
Common boundary nice after being redrawn (9) |
|
INTERFACE – anagram (‘being redrawn’) of NICE AFTER |
| 21 |
Regular customer somewhat in the shade (7) |
|
HABITUE – A BIT inside HUE |
| 22 |
Joint’s connective tissue short of density (5) |
|
TENON – TENDON minus D for density |
| 23 |
Small tree, thorn (5) |
|
SPINE – S + PINE |
| 24 |
Two sailors finish off sauce: this one? (7) |
|
TARTARE – TAR x 2 + [SAUC]E |
| Down |
| 1 |
Little angels demolishing much Brie (8) |
|
CHERUBIM – anagram (‘demolishing’) of MUCH BRIE |
| 2 |
An alcoholic drink leading to a sharp pain (6) |
|
ANGINA – AN + GIN + A |
| 3 |
Travel on railway is bloody (4) |
|
GORY – GO + RY |
| 4 |
Island workforce going over area (6) |
|
STAFFA – STAFF + A. Scottish island in the Inner Hebrides |
| 5 |
Punch farm worker? (8) |
|
HAYMAKER – double definition. A boxing term meaning a kind of wild swinging punch. |
| 6 |
As youngster, I love climbing drilling platform (3,3) |
|
OIL RIG – GIRL + I + O backwards |
| 7 |
The wood trade (4) |
|
DEAL – double definition. Not sure ‘the’ is necessary. Deal is a type of wood that I only know about because of crosswords. It’s also a seaside town in Kent where I used to go on holiday as a kid. |
| 13 |
Period of work: vital thing for changing case (5,3) |
|
SHIFT KEY – SHIFT as in night shift + KEY as in vital. |
| 15 |
US energy developed for island (8) |
|
GUERNSEY – anagram (‘developed’) of US ENERGY |
| 17 |
Drinking establishment left in charge of the people (6) |
|
PUBLIC – PUB + L + IC |
| 19 |
Have to enter trial agreement (6) |
|
TREATY – EAT inside TRY |
| 20 |
Book of the Year (6) |
|
ANNUAL – double definition |
| 21 |
One welcoming army (4) |
|
HOST – double definition |
| 22 |
Right to dig into trifle? Right (4) |
|
TORY – R inside TOY. |
Nice. We were on the Teazel wavelength today and finished, all parsed in a pleasing 14.30. Several clues took a few visits but as the crossers arrived they quickly revealed themselves. Liked haymaker, which was NHO for Mrs RH Andries think I got it originally from Desparate Dan in the Beano a few decades ago.
Thanks Teazel and Curarist
12:54 with a single biff, DEAL. I’d NHO its wooden meaning.
Fairly gentle but I got inexplicably delayed on my last two – SPINE, where I wondered if there was a ‘pike’ tree, and TORY.
Finished in 6.24
Thanks to Curarist and Teazel
I wondered if it was a pear tree initially but a spear did seem to be a bit big for the definition 😅
I did not find this quite as straightforward as our blogger, with a couple of hold-ups on my way to a 10:23 finish. I failed to parse HABITUÉ at all (put in from definition and checkers alone), and was very slow to see BEANSTALK (but then I usually am with cryptic clues). But my main delay was over my LOI TORY, which required a letter search which nearly had me trying TORt before I found the right answer. Obvious once one sees it …
Many thanks Curarist for the blog.
Worked steadily and confidently expected to finish all good so I was a bit surprised to find a blunder. TART* instead of TORY. Disappointed to fall at the last when I thought I had parsed it correctly. 22 mins to finish with a shrug instead of a smile. Pride comes before a fall.
Thanks Curarist and Teazer. Enjoy the weekend everyone.
* On reflection I put this down to my subconscious and a slice from a beyond divine lemon cheesecake bought yesterday from a local artisan bakery to celebrate a colleague’s retirement. 😋
Glad I’m not alone, as I also had TART instead of TORY. It was my LOI and I’d already reached my target limit of 15 minutes so I wasn’t in the mood to hang around and think about it too much.
I went for TORT and was similarly crestfallen.
I went for TORT too.
I’m questioning how TORY and RIGHT are interchangeable in a sentence
I did too. R ( right) into TOT ( a trifle). Tort is a legal right. Makes more sense to me than TORY. AND I was done in 10.00 – a PB! Thanks to Teazel for a lovely not too easy not too chewy QC.
A rare sub 10 min for me – but for another TOT including R
Trifle as a verb, ie to toy with something/someone. R into = TORY which is political Right.
That’s is how I understand it.
But I put R into TAT and failed with TART!
I also got tort but the definition is a legal wrong, not a right.
TART for me as well, and also considered TORT
I have a varied recent history with Teazel – either low teens or SCC. Unfortunately, he sent me into the wilderness today. I was still under the barrier when I entered TORY but this left H-B-T- – which floored me. Of course, accents don’t matter in Crosswordland. Only when I had HABITUÉ in place (with help) did I see TREATY.
I think HABITUÉ is clever but sneaky.
So, a rare DNF for me.
Thanks, both.
Note added later. It seems strange that there are only 6 comments and it is past 8.30 am. Perhaps I am not alone?
Got lucky with DEAL but not TORY. At least I knew DEAL fitted one definition. But ‘tort’ is a wrong not a right and anyway tot doesn’t mean trifle. Ended the week on a fast whimper.
I convinced myself a tot of rum was a trifling amount. Obviously wrong with hindsight.
I worried about SELL= trade fir another unknown wood.
Straightforward for some. NHO (biffed) HAYMAKER. Convinced of StInT, guessed KEY (though NHO); you know the rest. Humph. LOI (finally) TORY but still one to the bad.
19 today in 30 minutes.
Missed deal, the the was definitely misdirection. I used to play golf on the links north of Deal. proper out and back links course. Saint Andrews of the South possibly. Sandwich isn’t out and back.
CoD beanstalk
DNF for me, got stuck on a few. However, wanted to comment as I was so glad they finally updated the Android app so the phone navigation buttons don’t overlap the keyboard anymore! This has annoyed me for months, not sure if anyone else was having this issue?
Yes, it has annoyed me for months, too!
I know everyone says that “everyone can do cryptic crosswords”. I’ve been attempting them now for over 20 years and read various books, but this year I’ve really made an effort to make this ‘the year’.
It’s now been two months of attempting both the the Quick and the regular crossword every day, and afterwards going through each one on this blog. I watch the “Cracking The Cryptic” videos, as well as past ones.
Today I’d managed to do about two thirds of the Quick one in about 25 minutes before calling it a day. The other day I managed just two clues of the regular crossword – and one of those was a word I’d never heard of but got there from the wordplay instructions.
I’d like to think I’m a relatively intelligent chap with a good smattering of general knowledge – but have I reached my limit? Is it time to admit that my brain just doesn’t work that way?
I’m in the same boat as you, though over a shorter period. There’s been times (and still are) when I feel I’m too dense to do these, especially when it’s a particularly difficult one – yet everybody else says ‘easy’, ‘delightful’, ‘lovely smooth surfaces’. But I persevere and even shock myself at times (yesterday was an example).
So hang in there. Keep at it. 👍
I’m in a similar place ! I would say if you enjoy solving even a few clues a day, then keep going, and don’t get frustrated that you can’t complete the thing – it’s not necessary. “Wavelength” is a real ( and mysterious!) thing – some days one seems to click with the setter, and others we are apparently on different planets. I find these crosswords hugely rewarding, even if I almost never manage to complete one. Thanks to all the bloggers here – I usually only analyse my failures when I’m down to a handful.
I think after two months that’s fine progress. It took me much longer than that to regularly finish the QC, and after several years I think I’ve only finished the 15×15 a couple of times, (I only try when there is a particularly easy one, I find them so much harder than the QC).
There are lots of tricks and conventions that just take time to learn. The more you see them the more easily you will recognise them, parsing wordplay is relatively easier to improve at I think. I find the main sources of difficulty to be general knowledge (I’m relatively younger than most solvers seem to be, and not from the UK) and vocabulary (more an issue for the main crosswords than the QC I think, I’m not god at coming up with synonyms).
I’m also a Robert. I’ve been at it for about three years now. I usually get about eight in 20 minutes and then I either get completely stuck or manage more with the help of the crossers. I’ve been getting on well this week finishing with around 18. I have most trouble with the Ikea clues and some of the four letter words like today I didn’t get gory or tory. I’m very much of an either I see it or I don’t kind of solver. I don’t have the sort of brain that churns things over. In life my solution to problems tended to be first ask someone that might know….I did finish a QC about a fortnight ago but it take almost an hour. Let us know when you crack one 🙂
It took my wife and I about a year of doing the regular cryptic together every morning, and the quick on our own later in the day, before we could start solving them with any regularity, and several months before we managed to solve even one. Some days are still exceptionally hard and we get just a few clues.
So long as you’re enjoying it, keep at it and you’ll improve. Oh, and don’t worry about using dictionaries and so on: regularly solving without aids is for experienced hands.
Funnily enough I was thinking as I worked through this one that I would never have managed it when I started attempting the QC 3 years ago. It contained a lot of the ‘need to know’ words such as:
Hand for Worker
In for Home
Eat for Had
It takes time for these to sink in and I still miss them now and then even though I keep a list.
Keep at it.
Keep on looking at the 15×15 but just remember it’s very different beastie.
If, on a regular basis, I could do the QC in under 10 minutes then I’d probably stop and find something else to do. For me, spending 45+ minutes over a leisurely afternoon Costa is a pleasure and if I still have some to do in the evening, then it’s no matter. I don’t like being beaten so usually persevere until either completed or forced to use some sort of aid such as Chambers dictionary phone app (good for anagrams or filling in missing letters and/or Chambers Thesaurus. And I’ve been solving these for years! Others have also commented and given useful advice so don’t be discouraged at your progress, just enjoy the ride…
I’ve been doing these for about three years, and you’re roughly where I was at the two month mark. One thing that might help is the daily puzzle here: https://simplydailypuzzles.com/daily-cryptic/ . It’s easier than the Times QC (albeit probably not as good, and it still has the occasional stinker) and it got me to the level at which I could approach the Times QC with a fair degree of confidence.
Trying the 15×15 certainly can’t hurt, as long as you don’t let failure knock your confidence, but I wouldn’t suggest measuring yourself against it yet. For what it’s worth, I can usually get some of the clues but rarely finish it, and often fail to get anywhere much.
I found his one an an easy one to get started, but difficult to finish. There were some words I have never heard of (Habitue, Staffa and tenon – I’ll comfort myself by claiming they’re made up words 🤣). I have never heard of Deal meaning “The Wood”.
I needed a lot of help to finish this one. Enjoyable? “67” as the kids would say.
First Lap: 8
Answered (no help): 19
Answered (with help): 7
DNF: Nil
Time: 34:26
It’s not ‘the’, but ‘a’. Deal is a type of general purpose soft wood. NHO Staffa before. Apparently the home of ‘Fingal’s Cave’. No plan to visit. Looks pretty bleak. Others will differ.
PW, Deal is a generic name applied to cheap, light softwood – White deal is usually Norway spruce or silver fir. Widely used for doorframes, skirting, and cheap furniture, especially if it is painted.
Red deal is slightly heavier and much stronger with a reddish tinge that darkens with age and more pronounced , attractive grain. It is more durable and often used for better quality timber construction including furniture where it is easier to work than hardwoods (and much cheaper). It is much more attractive than white deal as it ages and is preferred if wood is showing (not covered by upholstery or paint).
It lasts longer but needs proper treatment for outside use such as window frames and shed or fence construction.
‘Red deal’ is often called redwood or red pine and usually comes from Scots Pine.
Hope this helps – It is common knowledge for ‘DIYers’ as is TENON (Mortice and Tenon joints)
Note. I have just discovered the claim that ‘many 18th and 19th century boats were made with “deal” timber. Specifically, this started with boats made in Deal, Kent.’
Surprising what you learn when responding to posts on websites!
That’s so interesting! I’ve always known deal to be cheap or soft wood but never knew it actually related to Deal itself. I had an idea that some utility furniture was made from deal, but that may be wrong. As you say, a dive into the internet can reveal fascinating stuff 😊
“Tenon” seems to crop up more than you might expect, so it’s worth remembering it. While you’re there, its reverse – “nonet” – occasionally makes an appearance, so you might as well try to remember that too. I vaguely recall a particularly mean clue using one of them as indirect wordplay for the other.
3:15. Held up only by my LOI TORT. Very gentle for a Friday. Thanks Teazel and Curarist.
From CHERUBIM to GUERNSEY in 7:39. Thanks Teazel and Curarist.
10:45. I see I was not the only one who had trouble with the (once solved!) not very difficult TORY as my LOI. TREATY and FEMORAL were also slower to come than they should have been.
A MER at ANGINA as ‘sharp pain’ – it’s usually described as a dull ache, pressure or heaviness. I liked HAYMAKER, a good word in the pugilistic lexicon. Overall an enjoyable QC which kept the brain ticking over.
Thanks to Curarist and Teazel
Interesting – my angina, if that is what it really is, is definitely a sharp and quite sudden pain. I have to carry the spray thing these days. I had a cardiology appointment before my injury. The consultant concluded that if I could get on my bike and ride 50+ miles in three hours with no pain then I didn’t have angina…I can’t do any cardio exercise these days hence the prescribed spray.
Had to work out FEMORAL (sadly NHO), OIL RIG and TORY, plus my LOI SHIFT KEY. I must work harder on learning computer vocabulary. 22:04 to finish. Liked HAYMAKER.
I needed the S to get shift key…
Unlike others on the blog, and elsewhere in todays news, not all green – laboured and lost over a TORY. Must reform?
🤣
🤣 Bad luck though
👏🏻
I went with TURN myself having been unconvinced that TART or TORT was right and after a full alphabet trawl, missing TORY and only finding TURN
It didn’t help either that TENON was a NHO to me so I had my doubts that that was even correct
Straightforward and enjoyable puzzle. I too had trouble with TORY but with only two missing letters it fell eventually.
Thanks Teazel and Curarist
If you have never heard of DEAL as a wood, then SELL (=trade) is just as good. Hence I failed on this one. I took an age to get BEANSTALK in any event, and a while to spot SHIFT KEY so not my day. Incidentally, I think the QUITCH is underrating this puzzle as a 90 (if you do a similar calculation with the website average score, which includes solvers with errors, you get a QUITCH of 123).
Yes, I was tempted by SELL at first. I agree with you about the Quitch rating.
Gave up once my self-imposed limit of 30 minutes had passed. INTERFACE, SHIFT KEY and TREATY were still outstanding. Disappointing really as the top half went in with no problems and it could have been a fast time if the bottom half had played ball. After staring for quite a while SPINE, TENON and TORY fell (the latter after a lengthy alphabet trawl) but no further PDMs alas.
FOI – 8ac HAND OUT
LOI – DNF
COD – 5dn HAYMAKER. Also liked HAND OUT and HABITUE.
Thanks to Teazel and Curarist
Interesting. Beanstalk went in from the B from 1d. Shift key from the S, haymaker from the K. Interface from the I of shift. I was trawling my brain for pantomime characters before the B went in.
Very pleasant stroll through, had habitee at 21a (so thats why I coultnt parse it), and interface needed a double alphabet trawl. Thanks Teasel and Curarist.
DNF
Fairly straightforward. NHO DEAL or HABITUE but both obvious from the wordplay. Came undone by putting a U in FEMORAL instead of the O which, given it’s an anagram was rather careless.
Also put TORT for LOI TORY, which was simply a case of being beaten by the clue.
Again tougher than average I thought in company with a couple of others this week. I eventually crossed the line in 11.24, outside my target time. I was thereabouts on schedule with only 22dn to solve, and the additional time was spent trying to convince myself that it wasn’t TORT or TART. Neither felt quite right, so the extra time was well spent finally thinking of TORY.
Tough week I thought with only two puzzles you could call straightforward, at least for me. My total time for the week was 60.14 giving me a daily average of 12.03.
After an encouraging few days I thought I had at last cracked the game, but I did not find this ‘gentle’ or easy. DNF BEANSTALK (doh). Biffed HAYMAKER, NHO punch.
Needed hint for Toy so then solved TORY, COD. Also needed hint for Pine.
Liked SHIFT KEY, DEAL, GORY (rhymes with Tory).
CNP HABITUE, though easy enough in retrospect.
Thanks for vital blog, Curarist.
Top half easy, bottom half not.
Failed with TORT which I knew was wrong and struggled with HABITUE and TREATY
Otherwise all good fun
Thanks Teasel and Curarist.
Dnf…
17 mins, but put Tort for 22dn, which I think works just as well as Tory. The rest went in fairly steadily, with the main hold up being the SW corner and the Tenon/Tort axis.
FOI – 1dn “Cherubim”
LOI – 22dn “Tort” (incorrect)
COD – 13dn “Shift Key”
Thanks as usual!
I tried to make TORT work, a tot being a small amount, a trifle, but a tort is a legal wrong, not a right, so didn’t parse.
Ahhh…my mistake then. I just remember Tort being an element in my Law module in my accountancy exams many moons ago and thought it was the other way around.
Ditto re Tort and also the many moons ago.
I have been doing these “quick ” cryptic crosswords for a couple of months and usually solve them in about 45 mins, half the time I managed at first. If I did them in less than 15 mins I think i would have moved on to trickier ones. I find it very rewarding when the answer finally dawns on me.
Only three clues to get with <15 minutes on the clock (very fast for me), but then the wheels well and truly came off. A quarter of a hour or so later I gave up, came here and wasn’t surprised to see that my answers to two of those three were incorrect.
My alphabet trawl at 7d somehow missed DEAL and found ‘dell’, which I entered half-heartedly before coming back and correcting it later. Trouble was though, being unable to parse 21a and not knowing the meaning of HABITUE, I couldn’t decide between it and HABITeE – so I didn’t. And, to confirm my DNF, I plumped for TORt (vs TaRt) as I knew it was something to do with law. My vocabulary, GK and general crosswording skills really are very shallow at times.
Many thanks to Curarist and Teazel.
A footnote:
No. clues solved in first 7 mins yesterday = 0
No. clues solved in first 7 mins today = 13
Weird!
Jack and the beanstalk would not come as easy as “Punch and Judy” for a pantomime. Also NHO the Haymaker blow. Shift key was tricky but nice.
Thought I’d finished in 20 minutes but my TORT was half-baked as I now see. DEAL must be in most houses in the land, somewhere or other: an ubiquitous softwood. Thanks for the mini essay, I love bloggers’ comments! Lots of logical and ingenious clues and a fun near solve. Thanks Teazel and Curarist
After yesterday’s fate-tempting comment it was looking like this might be the spoiler but we crept in in 11:46 with LOI TORY, where I’d thought of tort but rejected it as I recalled it as being a legal wrong not a right. Having Googled it subsequently I still stand by that. HABITUE also took a while. Nicely challenging I’d say was the overall summary. Thanks all.
18 mins. 1 error – another tort here. Was grateful to get something that vaguely worked for that one, without thinking about legal rights or wrongs. Felt longer with the SW proving difficult.
FOI Cherubim
LOI Shift key
COD Haymaker
Thanks Teazel and Curarist
I didn’t find it straightforward. Having congratulated myself on constructing SHIFT KEY and a PDM on BEANSTALK I failed on HAYMAKER. NHO of the boxing term and I don’t consider it GK. Just as well I didn’t finish as I would have had a DPS with FEMuRAL. Whoops…I also had TORT and never considered it could be wrong! Thanks Curarist
5.37 with a TORT
Slightly miffed but as has been said a tort isn’t really a right. I will withdraw to the “Too clever by half” tent.
Otherwise I thought this quite tricky in places and was half expecting a few disgruntlements. Not easy blogging these things and working out whether they are easy hard or middling!
21:00
I found this a real challenge but ultimately enjoyable as I think if I’d attempted this as little as a month or so ago I would never have finished.
BEANSTALK, HABITUE, SHIFT KEY and HAYMAKER stood out for me as clues you could only arrive at after considerable QC exposure.
Biffed DEAL with fingers crossed as I’d NHO it as a wood.
FOI: ALIVE
LOI: HAYMAKER
COD: HAYMAKER (didn’t think I was going to get it)
Thanks to Teazel and Curarist
15:47 here. Fortunately TORY occurred to me before TORT: pretty sure I would have been in the “yeah, bung it in” camp with either.
COD to SHIFT KEY.
Thanks to Teazel and Curarist.
Another TORT here, struggled to solve NHO HAYMAKER, and CNP HABITUE. The rest was fine 🤣 Many thanks all.
6.49 With biffs of HABITUE and TREATY at the end. 39 minutes for the week is very good for me, but it has been an easy week. Thanks Curarist and Teazel.
Thank you Teazel clues that mean something, at least to me. I plumped for ‘Tort’ after looking it up and confirming it’s a Wrong not a Right, even if it’s wronging a right! ‘Turn’ was no go because a Tun is little use if it’s very small, I think. So fun but one fail, happy weekend.
Another ‘tort’ here – I supposed it could be an alternative spelling for torte (ok, more a cake/gateau than a trifle, but it was as close as I could get).
FOI 8a hand-out
LOI 22d tort
COD 12a beanstalk
“NHO Staffa, but I’ll cut myself some slack for being American. I *am* a geography dork, though, and know several UK islands, like the Orkneys, Skye, Islay, IoM, Jersey, Gueooooohhhhhshit THAT’S what 15d anagrams to!”
Fortunately we had HAYMAKER in another crossword this week, so it came a bit more easily than I might have expected. TORT, TART? No, third time lucky and I got TORY. A small pear tree? PUBLIC put that right. The lower half of the grid is littered with crossings-out 😅 So I was pleasantly surprised to finish in a smidge under 8 minutes. It’s been quite a good week so far.
7:57 FOI Hand out LOI Shift key AOD Guernsey COD Beanstalk
Thanks Teazel and Curarist
I flew through the top and then got gummed up in the lower half. HABITUE needed all checkers, SHIFT KEY was a proper forehead-slapper, TREATY took ages and then finally I had to choose between a Tory, a Tort and a Tart. I chose wisely. All green in 08:19 for a Slow Day.
Many thanks Teazel and curarist.
Slow but enjoyable for me, taking 18:39. Wasted a fair amount of time trying to convince myself that a pike could be a tree, but no.
Thank you for the blog!
7.21. No problems, just slow on the touchpad.