This one took me 19:36, about 4 minutes over my average time. There are a couple of clues that are very devious (I’m looking at you, 15d and 22d). For the second day in a row, knowledge of rare-ish horse colours was useful.
As often happens, my COD award goes to the one that was also my LOI. ACUMEN, step forward!
On another note, many thanks to sawbill for the name check in his weekend quick cryptic last weekend. Fame at last. 😉
Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, (THIS)* indicates that the included letters are anagrammed.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Travelled through water to plot delta’s quaggy terrain (9) |
| SWAMPLAND – SWAM (travelled through water), PLAN (to plot) D (delta in the phonetic alphabet).
“Quaggy” is a fantastic word. I’d never seen it before, but I immediately knew what it meant. |
|
| 6 | Blue sofa empty by day (3) |
| SAD – “Empty” S |
|
| 8 | Snake, one preying on rodents eats 50 (7) |
| RATTLER – RATTER (one preying on rodents), contains [eats] L (50 in Roman numerals). | |
| 9 | Push dusky horse around and get snubbed (5) |
| NUDGE – DUN (a color of horse) and GE I had to look up “sorrel” yesterday, and I confess that if you showed me 10 pictures of horses and asked me to choose the “dun” one, I’d be completely lost. “Dusky” is another word that I know means something related to colour, but only ever applied to “maiden” in Mills and Boon books, as far as I’m aware. Fortunately, just recognizing that “dun” and “dusky” could have a tenuous connection was enough, although I needed most of the crossers. |
|
| 10 | Someone you know seen in almanac, quaint ancestor (12) |
| ACQUAINTANCE – Hidden in almanAC QUAINT ANCEstor.
Bravo. |
|
| 12 | Group of animals caught in auditorium (4) |
| HERD – “Heard”, when heard [caught, in auditorium], sounds like “herd” (group of animals). | |
| 13 | Formerly working, exec gutted to retire (4) |
| ONCE – ON (working, as in “is this thing on?”). Then take away the middle letters of EXEC [gutted], leaving EC and reverse it [to retire]. | |
| 17 | Company looking good after months making concessions (12) |
| COMPROMISING – CO (company) and then PROMISING (looking good) after M for months, as in the previously-mentioned form instructions. | |
| 20 | Name of girl beginning to mangle operatic song (5) |
| MARIA – First letter of [beginning to] M |
|
| 21 | Belch essentially uncool — is husband uncouth? (7) |
| LOUTISH – L (middle letter of beLch) [essentially] + OUT (uncool) + IS, plus H (husband).
I can’t remember seeing a good explanation for why “X essentially” can be used to mean “the middle letter of X”. Can anyone provide one? |
|
| 23 | Nothing new file exposed (3) |
| NIL – N for new, + |
|
| 24 | Wriggly beast destroyed the marrow (9) |
| EARTHWORM – (THE MARROW)*. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Address for king and queen is recalled (4) |
| SIRE – ER (queen) + IS, all reversed [recalled].
Historically, kings were addressed as “sire”. Which is actually a bit creepy when you think about it (or perhaps only when you think about it too much, as I have just done). |
|
| 2 | Newspaper item is little piece initially overlooked (7) |
| ARTICLE – |
|
| 3 | Drink up, mate (3) |
| PAL – LAP (drink, as a dog does from a bowl), reversed [up]. | |
| 4 | Fearful regularly using gaffer’s charity (6) |
| AFRAID – alternate letters [regularly using] of |
|
| 5 | Duo disheartened with people’s gifts (9) |
| DONATIONS – D |
|
| 6 | Large American car in esplanade suddenly reversed (5) |
| SEDAN – hidden [in] Here I have to disagree with Juji’s definition: a sedan is not necessarily a large car. There is a whole sector of the car market referred to as “compact sedans”. “Sedan” is the US equivalent of the UK’s “saloon”: a three-box layout: bonnet, body and boot, (US: hood, body and trunk), as opposed to an estate (US: station wagon). After about 30 years in both the UK and the US, I am reasonably bilingual. I’ve no argument with “American car”, even though there are sedans made all over the world: that’s just a clue that we’re looking for an American term as the answer. |
|
| 7 | German fellow is one trying to shed weight (6) |
| DIETER – Double definition, the first a German man’s name, the second someone restricting what they eat.
The word for words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently is “heteronym”. Congratulations if you can find a way to work that into an actual conversation without getting some very strange looks. |
|
| 11 | Embark on tanker due at sea (9) |
| UNDERTAKE – (TANKER DUE)* | |
| 14 | Foreign money and income managed to acquire Tesla (7) |
| CENTIMO – (INCOME)* includes [acquires] T (the symbol for the SI unit Tesla, the unit that is used to measure the strength of magnetic fields).
I didn’t know this word, but constructed it from the wordplay and crossers, and it seemed feasible as an unknown relation of “centime” and “centavo”. And so it was. |
|
| 15 | Insight about dividing gold pieces (6) |
| ACUMEN – C (about, as in “in c 2400 BCE, something happened somewhere”) in the middle of [dividing] AU (chemical symbol for gold), then MEN (pieces, as on a chessboard).
Needs a classic lift & separate operation on “gold pieces”: it’s nothing to do with money. |
|
| 16 | Walker’s alert to show caution around lake (6) |
| AMBLER – AMBER (caution) containing [around] L for lake. | |
| 18 | Good human being giving up time (5) |
| MORAL – MOR |
|
| 19 | Fancy top of wool on that man (4) |
| WHIM – first letter [top] of W |
|
| 22 | That’s not nice enough having turned one away (3) |
| UGH – from ENOUGH, ONE reversed [turned] is removed [away].
Very sneaky. |
|
Came here for parsing of 15d and 22d, so thank you. Will now have to come back for the explanation of ‘essentially’!
6:04
Biffed a few. A MER at SEDAN, like Doof’s. I think there was a brief discussion of ‘essential’ when it was first used; I remember being less than convinced by the justification but assuming that we’d be seeing it henceforth.
No good at all – I must have biffed a dozen wrong answers. At least some of the clues were easy…well, actually they all were, but I was solving like this was a Friday main, which it was not.
Time: 15:41
I’ve never been thrown by essential, for me at least the understanding is essential -> in essence -> at core, all synonyms
Essence as the heart of something seems to cover this crossword use of ESSENTIALLY.
6:41, slowed down by SIRE and AFRAID.
13 minutes with UGH unparsed, but as it was my LOI I didn’t hang around too long thinking about it.
Started slowly, accelerated at the bottom, crawled over the line. Had no idea about NUDGE but it fitted so bunged it in. Briefly invented the heartworm before UNDERTAKE put me straight. Enjoyed the moment of realisation for MORAL and the well hidded anagram for CENTIMO. All green in 14.25.
A first read of 1a lead to an interesting discussion of swam vs swum. With about 2 mins on the clock, we reset the puzzle and got off to a quick start for the top. The bottom was another matter and eventually finished in 22.02
Lots to enjoy especially the long hiddens.
Thanks Juji an Doofers
7:59
Slow for the penny to drop in places, such as SWAM PLAN D and AFRAID. Years ago, I played a few games of cricket with a London team called The Quaggies – not sure how they acquired their name though. Ignorance is bliss as far as SEDAN is concerned, as I had no idea whether it was a large, medium or small car. Took several moments to understand what was going on with the unknown CENTIMO – heard of centimes and centavos, so it wasn’t a huge step to this.
Thanks Doofers and Juji
Where was your team based? There is a river Quaggy in SE London – flows into the Ravensbourbe at Lewisham which itself joins the Thames at Deptford creek.
Aha! So THAT is what was going on with ACUMEN! Thank you Doof and well done Juji. 7.11.
9:39. It all went in very nicely. FOI SWAMPLAND, LOI UGH mainly because I nearly didn’t see it there, but I’ll give it my COD.
I’m happy with “essentially” as the heart of the matter. I’m less happy with “retired” as a reversal indicator (13ac). I am retired; I don’t feel I’m going backwards.
Thanks to Juji for the puzzle and thank you Doofenschmirtz for a fine blog
😄
. . .still a bit short of the 7th Age then ?
I must have been on the right wavelength as this was a top to bottom solve for me.
Similar MER to our blogger over sedans being described as large, especially compared to all the unnecessarily vast SUVs on the roads these days (a pet peeve of mine).
Started with SWAMPLAND and finished with UGH in 5.50.
Thanks to Doofers and Juji
12:53 Didn’t have the acumen nor the centimo but this blog gave me a nudge in the right direction.
TaDAJ
This one was pretty slow for me. Took a while to get going. Didn’t get many in the NW to start with, including 1ac. I think I was put off by “quaggy” and decided to come back later. When I came back and decided it had to mean “wet” as in “quagmire” it was pretty easy to see PLAND at the end. The last ones in, in order, for me where SWAMPLAND, RATTLER, ARTICLE and HERD (a surfeit of homophone indicators in this one, I couldn’t decide to start with!)
Overall, nothing too taxing, no trouble with any parsing once I saw it. Still slower than average for me at 11:15.
19.59 an interruption – and almost tipped into SCC – saved by the second.
Really enjoyed this, clever clueing and a number of PDMs.
Needed the helpful blog to parse ACUMEN and CENTIMO.
We know but never remember that ‘about’ can mean ‘on, re and C’…the last we always forget.
Snubbed as reduced is a new and possibly one day helpful pointer. Thank you.
….and RATTLER, our favourite Cornish cider..
No problem with essence, core, central.
Thank you Juji – and Doofers.
Slow on the top half, and positively glacial on the bottom half. Not entirely sure why, but finding answers was like wading through treacle, leading to a 16:48 completion. I did parse them all eventually, so nothing ungettable, just a very slow day.
Many thanks Doofers for the blog.
Pretty smooth progress through a nice puzzle. Stuttered a bit on the NHO CENTIMO, and paused over parsing ACUMEN and LOUTISH. Some quite intricate wordplay, I thought.
All done in 06:54 for a Good Day. Many thanks Doof and Juji.
Like my response to yesterday’s alleged QC. I finished this one but was slow (with interruptions).
I am becoming apprehensive when I see a setter’s name beginning with J. I don’t seem to find Juji, Jalna, or Joker provide Quickies for me these days.
Some good clues. Blog better. Doofers makes some very good points. Thanks.
All green in 15:30 with the bottom managed far easier than the top (but nothing managed especially easily). NHO CENTIMO or DUN, so NUDGE went in unparsed as did DIETER. COD to ACUMEN for some nice misdirection. Thanks blogger and setter.
One reason that CENTIMO is not commonly known may be that most currencies where it is used as the minor unit (100 centimos make a whatever) are themselves pretty small value, so centimo coins, and the word itself, have dropped out of use. Eg the Venezuelan Bolivar (650 to the pound in its latest incarnation), the Angolan Kwanza (1,250 to the pound), and the Paraguayan Guarani (8,600 to the pound). Centimo coins are however still worth using in Peru (100 centimos = 1 Peruvian sol, worth just over 20 pence), and 10c, 20c and 50c coins circulate there.
The only other place one will regularly meet centimos is Spain. Although the EU has decreed that their minor unit is officially called the Euro Cent (and this is what is on the coins), in Spain it is colloquially called a centimo. (Spain is not alone in this – Euro Cent coins are frequently referred to by local language terms in daily conversation, such as centimes (France), centesimi (Italy), lepta (Greece) etc).
Read through it, thought I couldn’t do anything and eventually found I’d finished . My definition of an enjoyable puzzle
Thanks to Juji and Doofenschmirtz
I found the top half easy but slowed down in SE with LOsI AMBLE, LOUTISH and put CENTImO in error.
Enjoyable though. Liked UGH, SEDAN, and WHIM, among others.
Thanks vm, Doofers.
20:36 – an average time, but reliant on some biffs to get there. ACUMEN , LOUTISH, CENTIMO (NHO), ARTICLE all unparsed, so thanks to our blogger for the explanations. I found much of this rather convoluted.
5:01. I liked PAL, although I think it must be a chestnut, and ONCE. Thank-you Juji and Doofers. Update: I knew I’d seen that clue for PAL before – it was one of mine in this crossword from 2022.
Ha ha – maybe you were the first to create it!
Good puzzle, thank you Juji – LOI AMBLER. Just needed Doofers’s help with preying on Tesla (that’s two): NHO RATTER or any SI units (whatever they are) – thanks.
SI = System Internationale, the weights and measures system used world-wide (except USA) Kilograms, metres etc.
Quite slow but very enjoyable, no lengthy hold-ups. Also couldn’t parse Loutish for the same reasons. Sedan is one of the US marketing mens creations, the cars of the day e.g. model T ford were open to the elements, the first fully enclosed one (a chevrolet if memory serves) was advertised as being “like a sedan chair” and the name stuck. Germans called petrol gaz oil from which the marketing men got Gas – oil – ene, and the earliest known reference to Aluminum is in a US advert for saucepans, whether they deliberately dropped the syllable or just couldn’t spell is lost in the mists of time.
Thanks Juji and Doofers.
Similar to yesterday, just within target at 9.27. It would have been quicker if I wasn’t required to sort out the mess I made of 16dn and 21ac. I initially wrote in AMLBER accidentally transposing the middle letters. This left me trying to parse BRUTISH for 21ac which of course I couldn’t. Got there in the end however.
Slowish especially in the bottom half but eventually signed off in 19 minutes – loitering at the gates of the club for the second day running. Everything parsed on the way except COMPROMISING which I parsed after completion. Having been flummoxed by Tesla clueing ev recently I was trying to work this into 14dn, completely forgetting about the vaguely heard of unit of scientific measurement.
FOI – 8ac RATTLER
LOI – 14dn CENTIMO
COD – liked the idea of a horse snubbing me after getting pushed around. Definitely made me smile.
Thanks to Juji and Doofers
13.04.
Happy with that. Annoyingly placed 101 in the rankings by this time in the day, but hey ho. Need to get around to it earlier!
FOI SIRE, LOI DIETER. COD UGH
Thanks, both.
23:04
Struggled with this one. Failed to parse LOUTISH as didn’t see out = uncool. Also had to biff ARTICLE. Then took an age to see UGH and COMPROMISING before falling over the line with LOI ACUMEN.
I’m not at all convinced that ‘Out’ really means uncool! For jazzers ‘out’ really is very cool, referring to improvisatory playing by the likes of John Coltrane. Listen, for example, to albums like ‘Out There’ by Eric Dolphy, and ‘Destination…Out!’ by Jackie McLean.
On the wavelength today. From SWAMPLAND to ACUMEN in 5:51. Thanks Juji and Doofers.
I loved it! The clever wordplay and lack of GK played to my strengths and I sped from SIRE to CENTIMO in 5:38. I can’t pick a COD but my favourites include NUDGE, ONCE, LOUTISH, ACUMEN and MORAL. Thanks Doofers.
Thanks Doofenschmirtz. From your comments on Sire (1d) and also 9a it looks like you’ve spent too much time in the past reading Mills and Boon.
Back to normal after yesterday’s stinker. Liked nearly all of this puzzle. All solved and parsed in reasonable time. In common with some others, I find ‘essentially’ a somewhat weird way of signifying the central letter.
Loved UGH
Thanks Juji and Doofers
17 in 30 minutes, blank area mostly south east. Got earthworm and ugh.
CoD ambler even though I didn’t get it. Juliet goes walking without her lover?
I’m not sure I would have chosen Juji (or indeed, like OB, any of the J setters) to come back to after a week’s holiday, but the inclusion of several parsing golds more than made up for a few bits of clunky cluing, albeit at the eventual cost of missing out on a window seat.
Swampland needed a few crossers to make sense of the clue, so I started with the much easier Sad before Rattler and the hidden Acquaintance provided the required foothold for a top to bottom solve. Just like Doofers, Ugh and CoD Acumen took some time to parse, but the pdms were easily worth the wait. Invariant