Time: 10 minutes. Today we have a very enjoyable puzzle from Oink to mark the return of a classic QC following some of the excesses of the past week. I hope you liked it as much as I did.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I now use a tilde sign ~ to indicate an insertion point in containment clues. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Second person falling for nightclub artiste? (8) |
| STRIPPER – S (second), TRIPPER (person falling) | |
| 6 | Husband withdrawn from Hunt inquiry (4) |
| CASE – C{h}ASE (hunt) [husband withdrawn from…] | |
| 8 | Member of Pride? (4) |
| LION – Cryptic with reference to the collective noun, a pride of lions. | |
| 9 | Who gets gran shot? (8) |
| GANGSTER – Anagram [shot] of GETS GRAN | |
| 10 | Australian state champion backing AI (8) |
| VICTORIA – VICTOR (champion) then AI reversed [backing] | |
| 12 | Couple of policemen I knocked over (4) |
| ITEM – MET (policemen – Metropolitan Police) + I, reversed [knocked over]. ODE: item – a couple involved in an established romantic or sexual relationship. | |
| 13 | Socialist darlings changing leader (6) |
| ENGELS – ANGELS (darlings) when changing leader can become ENGELS. Friedrich Engels (1820 – 1895). | |
| 15 | Line the pockets of Frenchmen Richelieu entertains (6) |
| ENRICH – Hidden. {Frenchm}EN RICH{elieu} [entertains]. | |
| 17 | Complain Trump is protecting Republican (4) |
| CARP – CA~P (trump) contains [is protecting] R (Republican) | |
| 19 | A little off colour, as golfer may be (5,3) |
| BELOW PAR – Two meanings, |
|
| 21 | Practise on slow-moving vehicle (8) |
| REHEARSE – RE (on), HEARSE (slow-moving vehicle) | |
| 23 | Bachelor leaving dull country (4) |
| LAND – {b}LAND (dull) [Bachelor leaving] | |
| 24 | Old man’s sons go by (4) |
| PASS – PA’S (old man’s), S (sons) | |
| 25 | Lousy ref worried solver in particular (8) |
| YOURSELF -Anagram [worried] of LOUSY REF | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 2 | Giving lessons to Inuit in trouble (7) |
| TUITION – Anagram [in trouble] of TO INUIT | |
| 3 | Pub first, then sex, right? (5) |
| INNIT – INN (pub), IT (sex) | |
| 4 | Retired GP eating last of salami? Greedy chap (3) |
| PIG – G~P reversed [retired] containing [eating] {salam}I [last of…]. Our setter’s customary porcine reference. | |
| 5 | Sound familiar, as Quasimodo should do? (4,1,4) |
| RING A BELL – The hint refers to The Hunchback of Notre Dame. | |
| 6 | I search all over the place for sack (7) |
| CASHIER – Anagram [all over the place] of I SEARCH | |
| 7 | Reportedly witnessed incident (5) |
| SCENE – Aural wordplay [reportedly]: “seen” (witnessed) | |
| 11 | Jam-maker’s disgusted utterance (9) |
| RASPBERRY – Two meanings | |
| 14 | Former journalist, say (7) |
| EXPRESS – EX (former), PRESS (journalist) | |
| 16 | French fashion designer taking new course (7) |
| CHANNEL – CHAN~EL (French fashion designer) containing [taking] N (new) | |
| 18 | Regularly agree on North American stadium (5) |
| ARENA – A{g}R{e}E [regularly], NA (North American) | |
| 20 | Mournful cries heard in the Principality (5) |
| WALES – Aural wordplay [heard]: “wails” (mournful cries) | |
| 22 | Aussie speedster married in Brussels (3) |
| EMU – M (married) contained by [in] E~U (Brussels) | |
Yes, a nice start to the week with a very friendly offering from Oink. Pretty much everything went in from definitions with the exception of ITEM, as I was thinking it might start with ‘ID’ for one of two policeman reversed before I saw the ‘couple’ meaning: a classic case of needing to lift and separate. Liked RASPBERRY and CASHIER. COD to YOURSELF.
Thanks Jack and setter.
8:34
Very slow for some reason (just about bottom o the SNITCH). I suspect that BELOW PAR (=off color) doesn’t derive from golf; a golfer shooting below par is doing well.
Quite right. I should have realised that myself!
A golfer would be under par….
I was going to add that I’d never heard ‘below par’ in a golf context (or, for that matter, ‘under par’ in an off-color context).
I, too, was a quite slow on this – I should have seen answers like stripper and ring a bell instantly. Well, at least I saw and parsed item right away, but I had to leave the obvious lion until last, hoping when I came back it would be obvious – and it was.
Time: 8:24
8.27, so smack in the middle of the peloton. Had to think about GANGSTER for a while but was pleased to get VICTORIA promptly, seeing I’m sitting in it. Thanks to Jack and Oink.
Getting to ‘angel’ from ‘darling’ was tough and I wasn’t thinking of individual socialists so ENGELS added a good old chunk of time at the end. BELOW PAR started life as ‘under par’ but quickly corrected. LAND and REHEARSE were were both slow to come to mind. All green in 9.33 after getting seven on the first pass of acrosses.
Oh dear, came here hoping to see comments on how tough it was. A real battle to finally get over the line in a whopping 30.45
After a nice quick start we ground to a halt and L2I Engels and Lion just wouldn’t come for ages.
Thanks!
Fairly straightforward apart from ENGELS where I had a double whammy. Like Mendesest, I struggled with angel/darling and my ignornance meant that I had no idea he was a socialist. If I’d had to put money on it I’d have linked him with Hitler’s mob.
Started with LION and finished with ITEM in 7.04.
Thanks to Jack and Oink
15:45 with a lot of time taken to rehearse Engels raspberry. Would have been well below par otherwise.
TaJAO
18.10 Slow on ENGELS, PDM with LION – needed the blog to parse EMU.
Biffed TASMANIA before realising the error of our ways and the relevance of a victor.
Not familiar with sack > CASHIER, though happily himself was.
COD REHEARSE
Thank you Oink and Jackkt
4:29 I’m another who was slow to see ENGELS. The usual neatness from Oink. No marks on my copy except the letters in the grid and my time. Thank-you Oink and Jackkt.
11 after 20 minutes, nothing after that, under par didn’t help.
STRIP CLUB on Friday, revelling in lust on Saturday and now STRIPPER today. Spring has arrived in the Setters Common Room.
Big fat DNF for me, having had no issues last week with the puzzles Jack calls excessive. Couldn’t see “angels” for “darlings” and also thought I was looking for a word meaning socialist, not the name of a socialist. Gave up in a huff after about six and a half.
Many thanks Oink and Jack.
I spend some time wandering through the back issues, and it’s interesting to see how as people (you!) become expert at this they get bored and give up in times that a few years ago would have been blazing fast for them. So take heart fellow learners, we too shall become quickly bored.
Ha, a just rebuke. When I’m breezeblocked I get fed up far too quickly – a little more patient thought would be a good idea, instead of flouncing off in a huff. This may explain why I can’t turn myself into a 15 solver!
No rebuke intended! It’s just interesting to see how our sense of “a long time to solve” changes as we learn.
Ah, ENGELS – took a while for that penny to drop…. Liked RASPBERRY and REHEARSE, both also confused me for a while. GANGSTER was good. Maybe this week will be less stressful?
7:11 for a fast Monday solve, with only LOI ENGELS delaying me at all. And yet another outing for sex=IT, the third day in a row it has featured. Do they talk of nothing else in the Setters’ Commonroom?
Many thanks Jack for the blog.
😂 It’s like the time Merlin was chuntering about Eton and they then put it in every day for a week.
IT is forgiven as part of the modern slang INNIT, but probably already passé amongst the South London gangs where it started.
I was thinking that too. They tease us.
18:35 – about par for me (neither above nor below), with ENGELS and RASPBERRY causing most difficult. Getting fed up with IT = SEX appearing yet again. At least ETON happily seems to have bitten the dust of late.
It is reminiscent of many Private Eye Cryptic Crosswords. ‘IT’ is a staple there.
So much was easy (LION went straight in) that it was really annoying to fail on ENGELS. Thanks, Jack. If we are talking about frequent entries, ARENA is surely a candidate.
Also failed on ENGELS, also really annoyed!
My index finger plaster is still causing typos – it is so annoying that my brain is so reluctant to let my adjacent finger do the typing but the plaster is non-conducting. So, I ended up with lots of re-types, missing letters and stupid slips like cICTORIA but couldn’t see all my errors at first.
I started well but was thrown by entering UNDER PAR at first and was slow to see CAP for trump. EMU was bifd and my LOI ENGELS took an age.
Still, I managed to avoid the SCC by a whisker.
Thanks, both.
. . .another Under Par here.
How does SACK = CASHIER?!
Old military slang, where an officer being reduced in rank was “cashiered”
The verb “to cashier” means to dismiss someone from service, often dishonorably.
Reason being you were sent to the cashier to get your last wages before being slung out (You have to try quite hard to get sacked from the armed forces)
‘ cashier’ (=dismiss) is not related to ‘cashier’ (=paymaster). (In Othello, Iago gets Cassio cashiered.)
Indeed. I blogged CASHIER in June 2025 (“Discharge with dishonour a bank worker (7)” – Izetti) as follows: “Discharge with dishonour” derives from Old Frankish but ultimately from the Latin quassare (to void); the “bank worker” derives from the French caissier (treasurer). I expected one meaning to be older than the other but no: the dictionaries give them both as C16. Funny that the same word entered our language twice in the same century but from two different routes and with two different meanings!”
There you go , I live and learn. I had heard my explanation several times from my military background family, but apparently not.
Another DNF. Breezeblocked by SCENE, partly because not convinced about CASE=incident.
7:09. Of which at least 2 minutes on ENGELS. Darlings = angels isn’t easy, I didn’t know ENGELS was a socialist, and only the unhelpful -N-E-S checkers to boot. Tough clue which made this a much slower time than it would have been.
Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle.
From STRIPPER to ENGELS in 8:04. Took a while to see GANGSTER and CASHIER. Thanks Oink and Jack.
15 mins…
Could have been quicker, but got stuck on 13ac “Engels”. I managed to parse it, but wasn’t sure if it was actually right.
FOI – 6ac “Case”
LOI – 13ac “Engels”
COD – 3dn “Innit”
Thanks as usual!
Very fast then DNF ENGELS. I didn’t realise we were looking for a specific Red.
I liked many inc BELOW PAR, CASHIER, CASE, REHEARSE and EMU.
Thanks vm, Jack.
Having misread Failing for Falling, and then hesitated over the ‘too obvious’ Lion, my foi didn’t make an appearance until Exchange. The downs were slightly more forgiving, though Wales/Wails changed sides more than once before Land settled the dispute.
Victoria (after a very careful examination of the clue to confirm Capone’s absence), and Raspberry finally opened up the LHS, but loi Engles needed an alpha-trawl that pushed me into the SCC.
I’m afraid the clue for Engles and the dreadful ‘Innit’ spoilt what was, for me, an otherwise entertaining QC. CoD to Rehearse for the smile. Invariant
DNF
DNK ENGELS, everything else parsed though.
Two on the first across pass seven on the first downs.
10 minutes with five left – 13a, 19a, 23a 11d and 20d. Took a break then LAND finally ‘landed’.
All bar LO(not)I in 14:40 – just did not have the GK.
FOI: LION
LOI: DNF
COD: RASPBERRY
Thanks to Oink and jackkt
Finished a smidge over target at 10.10, but would have been comfortably under if it hadn’t been for my last two ENGELS and REHEARSE, which took me over two minutes to solve.
Raced through, and then spent ages looking at 13a before giving up. I did know that Engels was a socialist so no excuse, I wasn’t looking for an individual. I think getting below par from golf is a real-world lift and separate. Par in golf is a “normal” score (for some, far from it for me). Then lift that from golf to just mean normal, then you are below (i.e. less good than) “normal”, I can’t think of any other reasoanble derivation, but don’t mind being corrected. Very enjoyable to be back down from last week’s stellar orbits. Thanks Oink and Jackkt.
I found this puzzle difficult to really get started, with only 7 on my first lap. Then answers came more quickly until I got to my last three (21a, 22d, 12a). There I got totally and utterly stuck. I saw CASHIER but didn’t understand how it could be the answer. However, it was clearly an anagram and cashier was the only word I could see, so in it went.
In the end it was a DNF for me, but an enjoyable puzzle.
First Lap: 7
Answered (no help): 21
Answered (with help): 2
DNF: 3 (12a, 21a, 22d)
Time: 31:06
9:11 TYTBAS
LION must be one of the easiest clues ever, what is the surface supposed to be referring to if not a pride of Lions?
Organizers of Pride parades I think. But agree it was kind of obvious.
Gave up after 23 minutes having given 13ac a good 5 minutes without success. I was slow to see ITEM and held off from entering LION as it just seemed too obvious.
FOI – 1ac STRIPPER
LOI – DNF but would have been 13ac ENGELS
CODs – 9ac GANGSTER and 25ac YOURSELF
Thanks to Oink and Jack
Trotted through (slow, slow, quick quick slow) until I ground to a halt with LOI ITEM which I could not see for ages. Also considered golf reference for under/over par but it was INNIT that brought a grimace and ‘whatever’ came to mind.
Definitely a curate’s egg kind of puzzle for me. On par 22mins.
Thanks Oink and Jack
8:46
BELOW PAR solve sitting waiting for airport transport. Stuck on ENGELS for a few minutes at the death.
Thanks Jack and setter
Very enjoyable QC from Oink, finished in 9 minutes.
Briefly held up by LOI ENGELS and being careful not to bung in Angels without parsing.
COD to ITEM.
David
Sadly, we were very BELOW PAR today at 16:22. Virtually all the damage was done by our LOI REHEARSE which we stared at for several minutes before the penny dropped. Too hung up on it being a vehicle formed from ‘slow-moving’ + (on) ‘practise’. Our time may have made the end frustrating but it was an enjoyable puzzle nevertheless. Thanks, Jack and Oink!
Oh dear, a DNF in about 9 minutes to start the week. Didn’t realise that the socialist was an individual, and to be honest I’m not sure that ENGELS would have come to mind anyway.
Thank you for the blog!
Nice and easy …. until it most definitely wasn’t. 35 minutes, but ~20 of those were spent on my last five clues (REHEARSE, EXPRESS, CARP, LAND and ENGELS).
I can’t remember the joke, but I think I’m right in remembering that Jasper Carrott used to tell a ‘true’ story about arriving late for a funeral in a town he didn’t know and ending up joining the wrong procession. The HEARSE at the front of the queue had already dropped off its cargo and gradually accelerated away as it drove away from the crematorium. The absurdity of a funeral cortège speeding along at 50-70 mph brought tears to my eyes.
Many thanks to Jack and Oink.
Was in for a time well in my top ten ever but completely breezeblocked by the communist.
Good puzzle though from Oink who surely gave us the most transparent porcine reference to date.
As Nutshell comments earlier, a golfer would be under par, and I confidently entered that, the truth dawning when I saw RING A BELL. Therefore, I thought the clue was BELOW PAR for the usually reliable Oink. Although my time looks quick, it was my slowest of the month.
FOI STRIPPER
LOI ENGELS
COD CARP
TIME 4:51
Only 13 solutions in twenty minutes! Don’t get the Trump allusion, and I hadn’t realised there are clues that require a word to be exchanged for a simile and then anagrammed! And my on-going problem with knowing which words can be shortened to their first letter. It appears that anything can except those that can’t – another woolly rule of cryptic crosswords!
To “cap” someone’s story is to “trump” it; both “cap” and “trump” mean something like “outdo”. There isn’t a clue which is an anagram of a simile; that doesn’t happen.
12.21 DNF. All done in six minutes except for my LOI. When I finally spotted ANGELS/ENGELS I entered the former and hit submit on autopilot, then immediately realised my error. Bah. Thanks Jack and Oink.
18 mins, with Victoria and Item holding me up for a while – nearly caved and bunged in idid on the latter until the penny dropped.
FOI Tuition
LOI Item
COD Item
thanks Oink and Jack
6.16. A bit of a canter.
Heading for a sub 10 minutes PB but held up by Rehearse and Engels. Still very pleased with 10.23.
I gave myself full Marx for knowing of Engels, the co-authors of the Communist Manifesto in 1848. Want to change the world ? Write a pamphlet!
20 min fail. Engels and Rehearse being my downfall (in common with some others I see). Shame as the top half of the grid came very quickly.
Yourself made me smile.
Thanks Jack & Oink
11:02 for me, a relatively quick run ending with ENGELS. RASPBERRY also held me up, as I was looking for a word for the person who makes the jam.
Thanks to Oink and Jackkt.
16:27, clearly I was not at my best today (I plead a busy weekend), getting stuck on ENGELS and (slaps forehead) YOURSELF. The rest went in entertainingly, with favorites INNIT and REHEARSE. But is a RASPBERRY an “utterance”?
Thanks Oink and jack.
This was all going smoothly until my LOI. I saw ANGELS for darlings but then couldn’t decide which other vowel I should substitute for the A. My favourites were E and I. So I cheated and looked up INGELS (a Danish architect) and then ENGELS. I crossed the line in 7:19 and I am outside the top hundred on the leaderboard…. others clearly knew of the philosopher. Thanks Jack
One of those “easy until it wasn’t” puzzles, full of fun clues that dropped in neatly, inspiring hope of a quick completion, but despite getting CASHIER (used by Shakespeare in The Merry Wives of Windsor: “He was fap, sir, until he was as they say, cashiered”) I failed to see CASE and I totally failed to see ENGELS. With -N-E-S I was toying with UNDIES, thinking of reds under the bed and goodness knows what else. Do nightclubs still have strippers? Does Soho still have gangsters? Despite my dnf, much enjoyed so thank you B&S for a fun half hour.