So yes, this is only Jet Lag’s second puzzle: the first was back in August last year, which finished up on 111 on the quitch, and I’d put this at a similar level.
And another lovely puzzle, with some cracking surfaces, well-worked anagrams, and tricksy clueing aplenty. Looking back at it, the first had a bit of a US flavour; and so again today, with JOE, CANDY, BOSTON, DENY, among others, so there could be some significance to our setter’s name.
I came home in 8:51, and would have been decently over the 10 minutes had I troubled to parse everything along the way. Lovely stuff – many thanks to Jet Lag!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Wide-ranging traveller goes through Moldova, Gabon, Djibouti, … (8) |
| VAGABOND – “goes through” moldoVA GABON Djibouti. These three countries would require a 6,000-mile jaunt, as the crow flies, and would be decidedly intrepid however you went about it. I remember being quite surprised on finding out VAGABOND is primarily a neutral word for an itinerant: wherever I first read the word when young, it was with the connotation of rogues and bandits, and that sense lodged in my head. | |
| 5 | Kid finally drank boring American coffee (4) |
| JOKE – K (“finally” dranK) to “bore”/drill into JOE (American coffee). Origin obscure for JOE, but first cited to early 40s, so maybe military. | |
| 8 | After reflection, transfer clock-watcher? (5) |
| TIMER – REMIT (transfer) is one of those words with quite a wide remit, and I quickly remembered from crosswords past that its reverse (“after reflection”) is TIMER, for which “clock-watcher?” is a fun definition. | |
| 9 | Gold stone before grave (7) |
| AUSTERE – AU (symbol for gold) ST(one) ERE (before) | |
| 11 | Business involving buying and selling chessmen opened by brother (11) |
| PAWNBROKING – PAWN and KING (chessmen) opened by BRO(ther) | |
| 13 | Upset at more conspiratorial code (6) |
| OMERTA – anagram (upset) of AT MORE. The OED says the word is not Sicilian in origin, and is most likely a corruption of the Spanish hombredad, meaning manliness; there is little evidence for the other main option, the Italian umiltà, meaning humility. | |
| 14 | High point includes characters in the Odyssey (6) |
| ALPHAS – ALP (high point) HAS (includes). Cunning little use of INCLUDES there. | |
| 16 | Field worker sees her PhD’s wasted (11) |
| SHEPHERDESS – anagram (wasted) of SEES HER PHDS. Very nice! | |
| 18 | Starts to belt a Verdi tune somewhere in Germany (7) |
| BAVARIA – the “starts” to Belt A Verdi, ARIA (tune) | |
| 19 | Quiet part is said out loud (5) |
| PEACE – is “said” the same as PIECE (part) | |
| 20 | Small quantity — it can be seen in this clue (4) |
| DASH – a DASH can be both a small quantity, and, well, the dash-shaped object currently masquerading as an equals sign in the middle of the clue. | |
| 21 | Frankly, I had 50 filling sweets (8) |
| CANDIDLY – I’D (I had) L (fifty in Roman numerals) filling CANDY (sweets) | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Reject love initiated by ex-soldier (4) |
| VETO – O (love) initiated by VET (ex-soldier) | |
| 2 | Maybe old maid quietly holds back animal sanctuaries? (4,9) |
| GAME PRESERVES – GAME (maybe old maid, the card game) P (piano = quietly) RESERVES (hold back) | |
| 3 | Person perhaps observing seagull cavorting with red crab (11) |
| BIRDWATCHER – very nice anagram (cavorting) of WITH RED CRAB. I imagine a (non-cryptic) birdwatcher would consider seagulls pretty thin gruel: how about a bunch of street pigeons to gawp at instead? | |
| 4 | Barney moving close (6) |
| NEARBY – anagram (moving) of BARNEY | |
| 6 | Comedian’s gig about English furniture (3-5,5) |
| ONE-NIGHT STAND – ON (about) E(nglish) NIGHTSTAND (furniture). A one-off play/routine/etc was the original sense, first cited in 1878, with the sex sense emerging in the 1950s (both originally US). There is presumably some 50s sitcom that plays on the confusion this might cause, to great hilarity. | |
| 7 | Invigorate crude genre with one’s elegance to begin with (8) |
| ENERGISE – anagram (crude) of GENRE with I’S (one’s) and E (Elegance “to begin with) | |
| 10 | Part of a dress ought to drape loosely (8,3) |
| SHOULDER PAD – |
|
| 12 | New England city backing commercial fair (3,2,3) |
| NOT SO BAD – BOSTON (New England city) “backing”, AD (commercial) | |
| 15 | Miserable person assuming Time published mistakes (6) |
| ERRATA – RAT (miserable person) assuming/wearing ERA (time) | |
| 17 | Say no to two states bordering Pennsylvania (4) |
| DENY – the two states being Delaware and New York. I had Delaware a good bit further south in my (hazy) mental map, but I see there is a little 25-mile border with Pa. at its very north. | |
Hard! Some tricky wordplay and a NHO ALPHAS. I can never remember OMERTA but once NOT SO BAD went in it came. Never heard of the card game so GAME PRESERVES came from the checkers and ‘animal sanctuaries’. Liked the hidden VAGABOND. Sorry RT but SHOULDER PAD is ‘should’ (ought to) and an anagram of ‘drape’, but I thought the same at first, too.
Thanks RT and setter
Ah yes, of course – thanks for examining the shoulder pad less loosely! Will correct the blog.
I think alphas may just refer to the greek character/letter which you might find written down in the odyssey
Thank you. Definitely overthought that one.
I found this much harder than yesterday’s, when I was well on the wavelength. Of course, I took advantage of the easy ones like vagabond and veto, and I saw deny at once. I think of Delaware as bordering New Jersey, just because that’s the easiest way to get there from the NY area. I was a bit nonplussed by one-night-stand, but the cryptic clearly points to it. Peace was my LOI, and even that forced me to think a bit.
Time: 12:58
Once again I had interruptions and was not solving under my ideal conditions but nevertheless progress was very slow to the point where I wondered whether it was just me or the puzzle actually was very hard. I shall be interested read how it goes down with others after the lengthy discussions here yesterday. I suspect that not many will have found it easier.
Slow start with a hard fought four in the first pass but the checkers from ONE NIGHT STAND and NOT SO BAD got me up and running. PEACE was my LOI too, really can’t see why I made it so hard for myself. ALPHAS went in because it fitted and featured alps. All green in 15.29.
I can’t share the blogger’s enthusiasm for this puzzle. Not because it was especially hard, because it wasn’t. But, like many of the newer setters, it feels as though Jet Lag is trying too hard to be clever and the result is just another crossword. It just doesn’t feel like I am doing a Times crossword (QC or otherwise) and it was just a drag.
Sadly, have to echo Agile James.
This is the first QC in which, despite nearing the end, we lost interest and opted to reveal the final few answers.
Then again, we are a diverse audience and a diverse array of offerings is welcomed.
Thank you JetLag and RolyToly
Tricky but some good stuff in there. I had no idea what was going on with definition of ONE NIGHT STAND, but the wordplay and checkers were clear.
Started with VAGABOND and finished with ALPHAS in a satisfactory 9.54.
Thanks to Rolytoly and Jet Lag
I found much of the puzzle rather tricky but managed to see through some of Jet Lag’s quirkiness and finish in 19.28 – a minor achievement for a QC that unbalanced me at times. I see the SNITCH is currently 130 so not everyone is finding it easy.
I worked out ALPHAS but don’t really get it. Apart from that, I parsed the rest (I think) apart from partial bifds for ONE NIGHT STAND and JOkE. I will now go through Roly’s blog and check how well I did this.
Thanks to both.
15 minutes. Not as difficult as yesterday but certainly no doddle. Identifying the correct defs for ONE-NIGHT STAND and NOT SO BAD gave me the most problems and even the “simple” JOKE was no write-in as I didn’t know the American colloquialism. Yes, a US flavour to some other clues as well but no complaints.
Favourite was our hidden but ‘wide-ranging traveller’ for VAGABOND.
Thanks to Roly and Jet Lag
10:04
Just tipping over the 10 minutes, which, while better than yesterday’s, ranks this, as Roly suggests, at a similar level to Jet Lag’s previous outing. With 7 minutes on the clock, things were still looking pretty sparse, but having just spotted VAGABOND, those valuable first letters gave me plenty of down answers. Must admit, I would have thought GAME RESERVES was correct rather than GAME PRESERVES (rhino marmalade? elephant jam?). Liked ONE NIGHT STAND, and as mentioned above, utilised the mental map of US states to know that New York (NY) is one of those required, which led to DENY, recalling Delaware (DE) being adjacent also. A little thought at the end required for LOI ALPHAS.
Thanks Roly and Jet Lag
I agree – never heard of GAME PRESERVES. Similarly I always understood a ONE NIGHT STAND to be one-off night with a stranger. We don’t call bedside tables that in England anyway. I found PAWNBROKING unnecessarily convoluted too. Liked DENY, but altogether too many Americanisms for my taste. Thanks to RT for the blog.
Very hard and needing alphabet trawls and (wild) guesses to finish in 27:23 with JOKE my LOI – not the faintest what was going on here. Not sure about ALPHAS Or GAME PRESERVES either. Not very satisfying.
ALPHAS – the Odyssey was written in Greek, so ALPHAS are Greek letters (characters).
Thanks for explaining. That’s a trick you don’t often see in the QC but do encounter in the 15×15. Seems a bit much for the QC when you combine that with the “high point includes” wordplay
I got the alpha/letter thing but thought there must be something else to the clue because it seemed a bit weak/convoluted, even with the Greek/Odyssey connection.
I’d say this clue is an example of the difference between say a Trelawney which everybody enjoys and the ones where there’s a chorus of “this wasn’t a QC”. The wordplay was hard but if the definition had been something like “Greek characters” I’d have confidently bunged in Alphas. Instead I spent an extra 2+mins trying to decipher it and couldn’t.
I think youre spot on. The impact on that is different for different solvers. Many’s the time the comments here have directed me to the 15×15 because its easier than the QC… I can confidently state that, for me, the hardest QC is easier than the easiest biggie, and I think what you are articulating here is a big part of why
That’s precisely why I don’t do Trelawney and avoid the other setters who would put something like “Greek characters”. But I don’t go on the blog to complain about them, so unfortunately the blog comments are skewed against those who provide trickier and wittier puzzles, which seems rather unfair to them.
Not only that, but the very first letter in the Odyssey is an alpha.
22:21 for the solve. Mostly held up in the SE by ONE-NIGHT-STAND, CANDIDLY, DENY with ALPHAS (LOI) taking me for another visit to the SCC. No idea about the Odyssey and, while a Christopher Nolan film is due for blockbuster release this year, I doubt few people outside of those who studied Classics at Oxbridge could name anything about it. And to be honest, I like a bit of Greek myth.
I also like a bit of Americana but didn’t expect a QC to need intimate knowledge of the layout of states so while I am able to name the ones around Pennsylvania, I discounted that in my solve until I saw NY from the checkers. States geography seems a bit more than GK to your average British solver.
There were some good clues in here (VAGABOND, BAVARIA, NEARBY, NOT-SO-BAD) but felt worn down by it once I got past the fifteen minute mark. Just enough mers – rat=miserable person; a comedian’s gig being a “one night stand” surely it’s “one night only”, the alphas and candy. Bit like yesterday in the sense that the odd strange word is fine but the density of these took away from it. To Roly’s list of Americanisms, I’d add VET and VAGABOND and maybe even GAME-PRESERVES – surely it’s just a reserve.
Thanks to Roly for an excellent blog and to Jet Lag
PS On the other hand, enjoyed the Cryptic Quintagram today!
I don’t think you need to be an Oxbridge classicist to know (a) that the Odyssey was written in Greek and (b) that ALPHAS are Greek characters!
I agree, but as I still didn’t understand the clue when I wrote that I thought you did. Hadrian’s comment only appeared while I was posting and the blog didn’t explain the detail.
No, both your (a) and (b) are perfectly obvious. But then the same would apply to betas, gammas and so on. You have to know that alphas are high points, which I had NHO.
Alphas aren’t high points, Martinů. Do go back and read the blog, where roly has carefully explained how the clue works.
Sorry sorry sorry. You’re right I didn’t read it properly. So it’s “includes = HAS” that I failed to see. I’m sometimes guilty of “pressing Send too soon”. Apologies.
No problem 👍🏻
And I don’t think you need to be an Oxford classicist to know something of the plot and characters of the Odyssey, e.g. Odysseus had to be tied to the mast of his ship to avoid temptations.
And the Trojan horse, surely.
And Achilles was Brad Pitt, obviously https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_(film)
I’m impressed
I kind of forget what story was recounted in the Odyssey, the Iliad or the Aeneid, but mostly I think of the Odyssey as the long journey and Penelope’s long wait.
Not forgetting his loyal wife Penelope!
Great minds!
Really enjoyed today’s QC with quite a few PDMs. I was given the card game Old Maid as a child, but it stayed unopened as I didn’t like the name. Certainly an American flavour but nothing unheard of. COD DENY. Thanks Jet Lag and Roly
I’m all for being generous and encouraging – I know I should have been more positive in the past about some of these – but unless we call out poorly pitched clues the setters are encouraged to keep getting them wrong! A lot to enjoy certainly so genuine thanks but quite a few that were tenuous and or obscure in my opinion. NHO of Joe and for most of us, I would suggest, a one night stand has a very different meaning!
I went with java for American coffee. I’ve never heard Joe for coffee. Best I could think of for boring American was John Doe. I parsed nine but didn’t bifd any others. Roly you can add night stand to the list of American phrases.
Agree re Game Reserves – where did the unwanted P come from – makes absolutely no sense! NHO Alphas in The Odyssey either. Google tells me it might be something to do with a kids TV series or even a computer game. Can anyone explain or are we all mystified?!
See comment above.
Funny that: Mrs M thought the same so I reached for Chambers and there it was, game preserve, no sign of game reserve. Anyone for deeper research into this?
Google’s AI summary:
“Game reserve” and “game preserve” both refer to protected land for wildlife, but “reserve” is more common globally (often used for conservation/tourism), while “preserve” is more common in North America, often implying a focus on hunting or specific management. Both function as sanctuaries, though “reserve” typically implies wildlife protection
All in all, I feel this setter may be more suited for the New York Times. I don’t think it’s terribly unreasonable to expect British usage to predominate in The (London) Times’ crosswords, which does not seem to be the case here.
Well done – thank you for that excellent exegesis.
Already looking forward to ‘exegesis’ appearing in a future QC!
Hear hear!
Totally agree. Less USA and more UK would be more appropriate.
I can understand wanting fewer American-specific clues, but please don’t *increase* the number of UK-specific ones!
I’d hardly expect my fellow Americans to be able to name more than one state that borders Pennsylvania, let alone a Brit, but there are already enough shires, heraldic tinctures, and abbreviations for sailors to learn!
All that before even getting to the dreaded rhyming slang…
Hear, hear!
If you like The Far Side – here is Gary Larson’s cartoon take on Game Preserves. I spent time on this too before then penny (p) dropped.
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18cXNStF6s/
🙂
Jarring!
Another struggle: after an hour came within four but threw in the towel, over to you, Roly, thanks.
So much US stuff here: NHO JOE or ALPHAS, sweets = CANDY, VET, even the two states. Do QCs over there demand GK on UK kings and queens and counties? Dream on.
Oh I assumed it was PAWNBROKers, no wonder I couldn’t get the two downs.
NIGHTSTAND is obscure, it’s in one out of three dictionaries.
Is a RAT a miserable person? Thought it was usually rogue or traitor. But if it is, I’m distinctly ratty this morning. But oh, loved the surface for SHEPHERDESS.
There’s a reasonably widespread coffee bar chain called “Joe and the Juice” so that wasn’t too hard. ONE NIGHT STAND, on the other hand … very slow to see that, and PEACE (thought the P was going to be the “quiet”), and LOI ALPHAS.
Finished in 10:26 for a Ok Day which makes it slightly easier than yesterday’s, but to me not as enjoyable. Many thanks Jet and Roly.
I lived in the States for 2 years and have never heard of JOE for coffee.
Seems to date from the 1930s. Some interesting theories about its origins here https://theroasterie.com/blogs/news/where-did-the-term-cup-of-joe-come-from?srsltid=AfmBOoq35-lMXwjuFHWhRphrmGEjJU2Y5gVmP3W07IZP6PGOUjcn4xqP
Oh that explains the name! I always wondered who Joe was and if he specialised in juice, why did he sell all the other hot drinks 🤣 All is now clear – thanks!
😂
17:46 with LOI PEACE.
NHO JOE for coffee, but it had to be the answer.
I agree with all the comments about game reserves not needing the P. I think GAME PRESERVES should be defined as “confits of pheasant?”.
Thanks Roly and Jet Lag
Dnf…
Turning into a disastrous week.
I thought this was hard again. Agree with all comments regarding “Preserves” for 2dn and whilst I managed 17dn “Deny”, after thinking it may have been “Pass”, I’d forgotten the “Joe” for American coffee (although it has been used here before). Even 6dn “One Night Stand” wasn’t straightforward.
There was a definite American slant on this.
FOI – 1ac “Vagabond”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 12dn “Not so bad”
Thanks as usual!
I made this even more difficult than it already was by biffing PAWNBROKERS, which held up ONE NIGHT STAND until ENERGISES gave me ING instead of ERS. Didn’t know that definition of a comedy gig either. Needed the -O-E and the K from the clue before I remember JOE for coffee. Was just about to hammer on the door of the SCC when that came to mind. From VAGABOND to JOKE in 19:30. Thanks Jet Lag and Roly.
I thought this was a good deal tougher than yesterday’s, as my finishing time of 16.47 would suggest. I didn’t help myself by initially putting in PAWNBROKERS, and it took me a while to correct it, as ENERGISE took some time to solve. Joe as an American coffee was unknown to me, and I spent valuable time looking for an alternative to JOKE.
My train of thought was interrupted midway through the solve, when my grandson appeared to show me the scar from his football injury. He seemed singularly unimpressed when I told him “I’ve had worse”.
DNS.
Just could not get a single one of these clues. I suppose that would make the setter think they done a good job.
Very hard.
Very disheartening
100% agree with you and think we need a renaming from “quick” to “smaller “
Please add me to the list that didn’t really understand GAME PRESERVES. I also couldn’t parse JOKE. I only know joe as an ordinary guy. I did however learn the meaning of the word OMERTA and really enjoyed the cluing for SHOULDER PAD. My LOI was ALPHAS in a sluggish 11:16. Thanks Roly
Oh yes, I’d forgotten how surprised I was by PRESERVES. I kept checking my typing of “reserves” to see why it was a letter short!
Well, I got there in the end, but it was quite a struggle after a promising start in the NW corner. Soulder Pad, Candidly and Errata were slow to emerge, but it was Joke, Dash and Deny that were the troublesome trio at the end, and they certainly didn’t come easily. I think once every six months sounds about right for Jet Lag at this level of difficulty.
CoD to One Night Stand for the parsing. Invariant
Surprised that I’m the first to point out that there is in fact no bird species called the “seagull” – there are 54 gull species, none of which are called “seagull”, so in fact a birdwatcher is very unlikely to be observing one!
I’m not a serious birder, but I noticed that too! But then I wondered if SEAGULL and CRAB were cavorting to make an anagram – while wondering what to do with RED 🤣
Thank you. A big bugbear of mine.
And mine.
You’re not the first to notice – I wasn’t going to mention it, but I always joked to my partner that there is one – Jonathan Livingstone of that ilk! However, I was going to mention that there are numerous twitchers that ‘specialise’ in gull species – not only that, but distinguish male or female, juvenile or adult, summer or winter plumage. It’s a serious subject! 🙂
Very clever I suppose, but apart from a few nice clues ridiculously hard for a Qc. I gave up after getting about one-third.
Yesterday’s DNF HAD 6 blank spaces and one incorrect answer. Today’s had 8 blank spaces (all on the left hand side) and one incorrect answer, so things are going downhill rapidly. NHO Joe meaning coffee, didn’t understand ALPHAS and, now it has been explained, I think it’s weak.
FOI – 1ac VAGABOND
LOI – DNF
COD – 12dn NOT SO BAD
Thanks to Jet Lag and Rolytoly.
After a good run of quick solves, capped by yesterday’s sub 3 minute effort (my post seems to have vanished), I was due a struggle – and here it was. I struggled with the American coffee, which was new to me, tried to enter game reserve until it wouldn’t fit, and ALPHAS took a long time to hit me. As is often the case, the LOI was one which should have been fairly obvious.
FOI VAGABOND
LOI PEACE
COD BIRDWATCHER
TIME 6:06
It hasn’t vanished, it’s on page two.
Your post is on page 2 – you have to click on “Newer comments”.
I must stop posting so late – thanks for that.
You’ve been on fire in recent weeks, Phil – the Championship surely beckons
Liked it a lot. Refreshingly different clueing. Couple of cunningly sown mines ( I think), which I duly stepped on. For some reason, I spent an age trying to make some sort of furniture out of an anagram of “ comedian’s gig” plus e ( for English) until the crossers made it impossible and I twigged the much more obvious correct solution. Perhaps tackling the 15*15 has made me over- complicate.
All fair, I think, except that I don’t feel austere and grave are synonyms ( whatever learned tomes say!)
Thanks to setter and blogger. Never thought I’d look forward to more Jet Lag.
Isn’t it funny how some of the more experienced solvers find some puzzles difficult, whilst less experienced ones find the same puzzle easier. For example, yesterday’s puzzle for me was impossible. Today’s I found far easier. Yet Vinyl1, who is not only far more experienced than me at solving cryptic crosswords, but who I also consider to be far more intelligent than I (and to whom I also look up to in the world of cryptic solving, amongst other including Jackkt, Templar and Invariant) found today’s QC to be more difficult than yesterday’s. I have never been one for believing in the “wavelength”, but perhaps there is something in it.
I found today’s QC very entertaining. It wasn’t a breeze by any stretch of the imagination, yet some of the answers just came to me before I had even worked out the cryptic. I ended up typing in the answer and then looking at the clue again to see how it could produce the answer.
I really liked 20a. I was looking for a hidden, then an “all-in-one”. When the answer sprang up in my mind I immediately thought “what a great clue!”
I saw ONE NIGHT STAND but couldn’t make it fit as I had PAWNBROKERS in at 11a. I saw that 7d had to be ENERGISE, but again it didn’t fit because of my error in 11a. In the end I entered ENERGISE and ONE NIGHT STAND and looked at how it corrupted my original PAWNBROKERS. It was then that I saw my error.
I’ve heard of Joe being an American term for coffee, but I can’t think where.
My first Jet Lag QC and a very enjoyable first experience.
First Lap: 6
Answered (no help): 20
Answered (with help): 2
Time: 33:35
There is absolutely something in wavelength – probably find it’s well- known amongst psychologists.
I consider two things to be examples of wavelength …
The order of the clue. Many of today’s have the definition first and then the wordplay. I tend to find clues like today’s “Barney moving close” allows me to already be doing the wordplay and the definition confirms the answer. A puzzle like today’s is still doable but it takes me longer to understand what the setter is telling me
And the synonyms I can think of. if my list of words for priest is Eli, vicar, reverend is similar to the Setter’s order then that’s better wavelength than when I encounter a setter whose list begins curate, rector, bishop
I don’t know if it’s wavelength or just a question of building up confidence if the first few go in without difficulty. An early struggle can be turned round (‘things started to click’), but it (nearly) always seems a lot easier if 1ac/d slide into place.
PS thanks for the name check, but I’m nowhere near the level of the others you mention.
Is there room in the SCC? I thought yesterday’s was quite tricky, but today? Well, at least I finished it, but not fully parsed.
I liked Jet Lag’s opening clue – there was a hint straightaway of what was to come! Certainly quite international in flavour. I liked BIRDWATCHER and BAVARIA.
I don’t want to whinge, but maybe a few too many Americanisms for a British crossword? I’m always sympathetic when our American friends are faced with a bit of British geography, but I did think that expecting us to know Pennsylvania’s neighbours (and then their abbreviations) was a bit of an ask. Overall, I think it was quite a complicated clue.
My main difficulty was self-inflicted. I scribbled GAME RESERVES with two Rs, which made PAWNBROKING tricky! I don’t think I knew PRESERVES as a variation for a game park.
20:06 FOI Vagabond LOI Peace COD Shepherdess – what a terrific clue.
Thanks Jet Lag and Roly. Now I shall read all the comments and see what everyone else has to say!
BTW I was very interested in yesterday’s conversation with JC. It’s so hard to explain why I find some setters so much more difficult than others, but apart from DESSERT, I did Asp’s April fool in about 15 minutes, which is about 5-6 minutes over my usual sort of time. But today, with several clues (inc ERRATA, ALPHAS, PEACE), I just couldn’t see what Jet Lag was getting at and it was a slow process! All the more satisfying for completing though 😊
Later: 25 mins on the biggie! Just five more than here 🙄
Ha! The first problem is actually knowing which bit belongs to Pennsylvania . . . let alone what’s next to it.
Well, I had CANDIDLY, so initially was trying to workout whether the code for Pennsylvania was PY, but that didn’t look right and PA didn’t fit 😅
Sorry for the confusion, but I actually meant which bit of the USA. . .
26.09 I found this harder than yesterday’s. Like others I was delayed by a biff of PAWNBROKERS and confused by GAME PRESERVES. ALPHAS took an age at the end. Thanks rolytoly and Jet Lag.
Way too hard for a beginner! – if that’s what I still am after a year. Only solved 7 clues after 15 mins.
Dear AR,
You’re not alone. I have been diligently going at these for nearly six years now, but I still feel like a novice (especially this week). I persevered for longer and got further than you today, although I too threw in the towel before the finish line. Interestingly, I also had solved only 7 clues at the quarter hour mark.
Try not to lose confidence because of a couple of harder days in a row. it has always been that there are runs of toughies. I started 4½yrs ago and struggled for a couple of years before it all started to come together to the point where my times are regularly up there with the bigs boys (and gals). Keep plugging away 👍
I don’t always do the QC.
This one took me 12’45”, nine seconds more than the 15×15.
Perhaps I need more practice.
Thanks roly and setter.
I gave up after a seemingly interminable 62 minutes with four clues unsolved:
5a (_O_E), 14a (_L_H_S), 19a (P_A__) and 17d (___Y).
My week so far: 2 successes, 2 DNFs, 8 clues unsolved, ~10 other clues unparsed.
Total time: 3hrs 47+ mins (!).
All just too obscure for me, I’m afraid.
Maybe I need to find a QC for simpletons.
Do GAME PRESERVES store pheasant jam?
Many thanks to Roly for the blog.
Enjoyable but tricky puzzle, much easier than yesterday’s but, alas, two mistakes – failed on DASH and PEACE, stupidly.
Finished LHS first but, like others, I put PAWNBROKers to start with which made ENERGISE tricky. Finally realised it had to be ONE-NIGHT STAND (!), so changed to BrokING. Biffed DE NY. Ditto NOT SO BAD and JOKE – nho Joe coffee.
I also biffed ALPHAS, not remembering them in the Odyssey despite some rummaging in what’s left of my brain – but now it had been pointed out above: Greek letters – doh. Was puzzled by P Reserves but it had to be.
Thanks vm, Roly. Blog vital.
This felt different and was a DNF. I was pushed for time this morning and threw in the towel as I entered the SCC with four left. GAME PRESERVES, TIMER, JOKE and DASH. I’d forgotten about the game and the coffee, still don’t really get ‘remit’ but will endeavour to remember the reverse and was too dim to see the ‘dash’.
So though I’m not exactly happy with my performance I do feel I’ve learnt a few tricks of the trade today.
Thanks to JL for a slightly different challenge and to Roly for the much needed blog.
Came to this after a fine family lunch, and perhaps as a result struggled to a completion in 15:42 for a second very slow day in a row. I detect at least 3 Americanisms which (unlike many) are still rare in British English – well I had not heard of any of them – in Joe for Coffee, Game Preserves with their odd P, and One night stand (as others have said it means something else this side of the Pond), and if you throw in needing to know which states border Pennsylvania and where Boston is (this one I did know!), this puzzle was probably aimed more at our international solvers than at me. But it was still all solvable, eventually, and I have at least now learnt what “Joe and the Juice” signifies.
Many thanks Roly for the blog.
“One night stand” in the sense of the clue is not usual over here either.
Oof, two tricky days in a row. This one took me 17:42, with PEACE and ALPHAS taking up a fair chunk of that at the end.
Thank you for the blog!
First cast optimistic , I would always go GAME RESERVES, not, thankfully being an American, which slowed me up a bit
leading to sad DNF
Jet Lag is definitely an American setter getting his own back on our ‘county towns’, CRS and idiomatic expressions! This took a surprising amount of time, despite the NW corner going in more or less straight away. NHO Joe, so JOKE had to wait for the crossers. ENERGISE was quick to fall, which meant I wasn’t tempted by PAWNBROKERS, which doesn’t in any case parse. I was delayed for a long time on ONE-NIGHT STAND, as it’s not a piece of furniture I would normally think of, and DENY and DASH were slow in coming, needing the Y to give me NY and then Delaware. I should of course have seen DASH straight away, but I always get caught out by that type of clue. LOI was ALPHAS, so easy, but also clever, as I searched in vain for a term meaning ‘high point’. Well done, Jet Lag, an excellent puzzle!
15:47, and another pretty hard QC that I enjoyed a lot. At the beginning it felt like foreign territory, well, it was, wasn’t it, and my FOI was BAVARIA (hmmm), so thought it would be a very long haul. Suddenly everything fell into place and I was sprinting to the finish when I stubbed my toe on ALPHAS – great clue, which I seized by every end except the right one until an alpha trawl (haha) got me there. As usual, in retrospect it looks like a very easy clue. Sigh. Ironically, American me had finally learned from these puzzles that British people don’t say “wildlife preserve”, so had a hard time with 2d. I loved SHEPHERDESS and NOT SO BAD.
Thanks to Jet Lag and roly.
19:01. Slower than yesterday, but oddly it felt easier. I have lived in the US for the last 30+ years and so am bilingual in English and American. This puzzle needed me to dip into the “US usages” part of my brain more than most, and I confess that I needed to check a map to confirm that Delaware and Pennsylvania are neighbours.
Thanks to Jet Set and rolytoly.
Having lived in New York most of my life, Pennsylvania for good bits of it, and studied maps pretty extensively, I wrote this right in, but I was pretty shocked that this passed muster as acceptable GK for a Times QC. More NYT-appropriate.
I had a very different experience from many here. The opening made me smile, but seemed pretty obvious, and after a few other early long clues went in easily, I started to suspect we were getting a makeup for how hard yesterday was.
It got trickier, and though I ended up far below average time, it was not near record territory. But clever and enjoyable throughout.
I think being American was probably a big advantage on this one, which I realize makes folks grumpy — and fair enough, it is a British game. But think how we suffer the rest of the time.
Thanks, JL!
Shocked to see the struggles here. I wrote in nearly 3/4 of the puzzle straight away, got bogged down a little with ALPHAS and PEACE, and clocked in at 5:11 feeling like I could’ve been a good 30-40 seconds faster.
Cool to see my home state of Delaware make an appearance! Wilmington, up north, is basically a suburb of Philadelphia. Or at least, it’d like to think so.
16:03 for us so substantially slower than yesterday but still more or less within regular bounds. I’d vaguely recalled coming across Joe before, but only once I’d thought of JOKE (and I did check it before moving on). A MER at PRESERVES though where we hadn’t seen that unusual sounding usage before (but could parse the clue). Our LOI was ERRATA though, which went in with fingers tightly crossed because we couldn’t parse it though, with the checkers it had to be. Thanks to Jet Lag and Roly.
Very tough but I enjoyed it once I realised I’d need my A game.
Solved after a lunch out, fell asleep on the train, and then needed a strong cup of tea at home to get to LOI ALPHAS (having searched vainly for characters from the story). A long time in all.
JOKE was late in not really knowing Joe for coffee. DENY was difficult but pleasing (because I was able to work it out).
I have to say GAME PRESERVES was odd but, at least, clearly clued.
I’m all for a tough puzzle every so often. Shame this wasn’t on Friday as I would like to see Simon Anthony solve this.
David
11 not done, 13 yesterday, is today any better, I’m either running down to Easter (autofill couldn’t get Easter by the way!), or I didn’t much like the clues. I failed on quite a few, but others I just thought odd. ALPHAS/Odyssey, Joe for coffee, DASH, sorry…