8 minutes. I’ve had quite a bad patch of QC solving times recently which finally ended last Friday with 8 minutes spent on an offering from Wurm, my first sub-10 solve since Trelawney’s last outing on 20th April (also 8 minutes). Today with the return of Trelawney I’ve equalled that. I don’t keep track these days, but I think both of these setters are generally considered to be at the easier end of the spectrum. How did you get on?
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 Caret 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 | Least expensive copy found in wooden box (8) |
| CHEAPEST – APE (copy) contained by [found in] CHE⁁ST (wooden box). I wonder if I was alone in thinking of coffin before chest? | |
| 5 | Some nap secretly in part of church (4) |
| APSE – Hidden in [some] {n}AP SE{cretly} | |
| 9 | Closely follow mum’s doctrine (5) |
| DOGMA – DOG (closely follow), MA (mum) | |
| 10 | American writer turned into fat cat (7) |
| LEOPARD – POE (American writer) reversed [turned] contained by [into] L⁁ARD (fat). My LOI and one of the few clues I needed to return to when more checkers were in place. | |
| 11 | Consequence of extremely rude orchestra section (12) |
| REPERCUSSION – R{ud}E [extremely], PERCUSSION (orchestra section) | |
| 13 | Tolerate part of play featuring creep periodically (6) |
| ACCEPT – AC⁁T (part of play) containing [featuring] C{r}E{e}P [periodically] | |
| 15 | Detest a hotel terribly (6) |
| LOATHE – Anagram [terribly] of A HOTEL | |
| 17 | Scarlet Lycra pants very obvious! (7-5) |
| CRYSTAL-CLEAR – Anagram [pants] of SCARLET LYCRA | |
| 20 | Inventor’s right to hug one invalid? (7) |
| PATIENT – PAT⁁ENT (inventor’s right) containing [to hug] I (one) | |
| 21 | Wireless advertisement in Brazilian city (5) |
| RADIO – AD (advertisement) contained by [in] R⁁IO (Brazilian city) | |
| 22 | Pleasant afternoon finally to chill (4) |
| NICE – {afternoo}N [finally], ICE (chill) | |
| 23 | Save prisoner to join the military? (8) |
| CONSERVE – CON (prisoner), SERVE (join the military) | |
| Down |
|
|---|---|
| 1 | Swimmer ultimately broke cipher (4) |
| CODE – COD (swimmer), {brok}E [ultimately] | |
| 2 | Gale disturbed European bird (5) |
| EAGLE – Anagram [disturbed] of GALE, then E (European) | |
| 3 | Aviation enthusiast quietly tracks ceramicist (12) |
| PLANESPOTTER – P (quietly), LANES (tracks), POTTER (ceramicist) | |
| 4 | Choose the Spanish to infiltrate faction (6) |
| SELECT – EL (‘the’ in Spanish) contained by [to infiltrate] S⁁ECT (faction) | |
| 6 | Musician heading back inside west Sinai peninsula (7) |
| PIANIST – Reversed [heading back] and hidden [inside] {wes}T SINAI P{eninsula} | |
| 7 | Jeopardise finale and get cross (8) |
| ENDANGER – END (finale), ANGER (get cross) | |
| 8 | Peer group? (5,2,5) |
| HOUSE OF LORDS – Cryptic | |
| 12 | Cooked canapé with US kitchen utensil (8) |
| SAUCEPAN – Anagram [cooked] of CANAPE US | |
| 14 | Mysterious wail before photo capturing ghost’s foot (7) |
| CRYPTIC – CRY (wail), P⁁IC (photo) containing [capturing] {ghos}T [’s foot] | |
| 16 | Rather drunk, beginning to bet on numbers game (6) |
| BLOTTO – B{et} [beginning to…], LOTTO (numbers game) | |
| 18 | More unhappy after losing small snake (5) |
| ADDER – {s}ADDER (more unhappy) [after losing small] | |
| 19 | Wisecrack from judge offended King Edward primarily (4) |
| JOKE – J{udge} + O{ffended} + K{ing} + E{dward} [primarily] | |
9.13 Nearly double my PB! Congratulations to everyone who achieved one. I was very slow on the last few and finished with CONSERVE. CRYSTAL CLEAR was entertaining. Thanks Jack and Trelawney.
Amazing achievement! 👏
11 mins got most answers on first reading. Not sure I could write much faster. Suspect 10-11 mins is my terminal velocity.
Thanks Jack and Trelawney
Oh, yea, oh, yea…. definitely a day of joy for many of us. A PB for us also – possibly sub 8 -if not, just over 8 (one slight interruption). Delight enhanced by the fact we felt it to be a good puzzle – well crafted, even if simple, one that stuck to the rules and made us feel we had achieved a level of competence in this ‘sport’. Congratulations to all and sincere thanks to Trelawney – and to Jackkt.
Well done 👏
Brilliant! 👏
I think this 13:52 was my personal best. Struggled on CONSERVE because I thought ‘to join’ was a placement indicator (and didn’t yet have the S checker). Only one I couldn’t parse until afterward was LEOPARD.
How is ‘pants’ an anagram indicator, though?
One meaning of pants is ‘not very good/rubbish’, as in ‘That’s pants’ or ‘That’s utter rubbish’ 😄
A good start to the week. I completed this in a gentle twenty minutes, pausing only over 23a, where starting an alphabet trawl soon gave me CON and I completed the puzzle. Thank you T and J.
Nothing to add to the happy comments above.
A welcome sub 20m solve.
01:27:27 – my first ever solve. I don’t even care that it was easy or that I took a huge amount of time, I am pretty proud of myself as a non-native speaker.
I had never before heard the word “Blotto” and House of Lords confused me and I only filled it in using the letters I got from other answers.
well done! fantastic achievement, and definitely not something I’d even consider trying in another language! congratulations!
Brilliant! Well done 👏
Very well done, you have every reason to be proud 🌟
Lovely puzzle! Trelawney really pitches it well – if 1a and 5a go in straight away, you know you are going to enjoy the challenge, and so it proved: 10m with loi CONSERVE. 16d BLOTTO very P G Wodehouse – nice one. Thanks Trelawney and Jack.
Quite pleased with 8.02 which is definitely well below my average. Congrats to all those who got a PB today.
Thanks Trelawny and Jack.
10:04 for me. Congratulations to everyone setting record times, but I wasn’t on form today.
My COD award goes to REPERCUSSION.
Thanks to Trelawney and Jackkt.
04:59. just squeaked in under 5 mins. wasted a bit of time in a couple of places – CODE took longer than expected, even though I knew it was something to do with encryption. still it made it nice and easy when CRYPTIC popped up a bit later. Lovely Monday fare.
5:34 in two smooth passes. Very welcome at the end of a hectic day! Poe is my go-to writer in these parts but waited for the checkers to see if I was on the right lines. COD to PATIENT for the very satisfying PDM.
Has anyone been BLOTTO since 1976?
Thanks to the Squire and Jackkt!
Congratulations to everyone who achieved a PB today.
Lots of PBs on this one, so it’s obviously on the easy side. But a win is a win! Not my absolute best time but a huge improvement of my almost hour long effort from last QC.
CRYPTIC holds a special place in my heart as I was able to stumble upon the solution purely from the word play which is always a nice feeling. But LEOPARD really was the COD even though I initially wrote in the answer and reverse engineering the word play after the fact. Sometimes that too is a delight. LOI was REPERCUSSION which looked face-palmingly obvious after filling it in.
Time: 25:59
Under 15 minutes.. best ever .. unlike all you young people I don’t get up until after 9am when my husband has printed off my crossword which I save for early evening.. while Arsenal play on!! So great to see so many happy blogs! If you get this done in 5mins what’s left to enjoy for the rest of the day?! Starting to move cryptics
Hurrah – another late solver! I generally start about 4pm but can be 10pm!
This felt quite a bit faster than our eventual 8:02 today so it’s left me wondering whether we’ll ever see another PB. Most apposite COD has to be the scarlet lycra one since it’s only about 3 hours since Mrs T and I returned from a bike ride and, yes, we are of the ‘lycra clad’ variety beloved?? of Daily Mail readers: replete, in my case, with a scarlet chamois (look it up if you’re not cyclists). LOI CONSERVE. Thanks, Jack and Trelawney.
Congratulations to all the PBers today! We were also very pleased with our sub 15 minutes, but then noted we were sub-14 for Trelawney’s last one in April! But still very happy. A delight to do.
We are also late birds, not starting the QC until after supper.
Thanks very much Trelawney for the fun, and Jack for your, as always, clear blog.
5.23. My quickest for a while.
10 mins…
Not as fast as some above, but a straight forward puzzle for Monday.
FOI – 1ac “Cheapest”
LOI – 8dn “House of Lords”
COD – 11ac “Repercussion”
Thanks as usual!