Very nice, middling difficulty.
A few bits of trickier vocab if you haven’t encountered them before, but otherwise I think this was Teazel – one of our harder regular setters with an average quitch of 99 – on comparatively gentle form. (Which, I will add, is different from calling this a gentle puzzle!)
I clocked in in 5:18, very welcome after over double that on yesterday’s just before (with a bad bit of breezeblocking on the quit/quietude pair). Much enjoyed – many thanks to Teazel!
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | S for sovereign? (4,2,5) |
| HEAD OF STATE – cryptic hint, with S indeed being the ‘head’ of State | |
| 8 | European finally in charge of stretcher (7) |
| ELASTIC – E(uropean) LAST (finally) IC (in charge). ‘Of stretcher’ strikes me as a bit meaningless, but I suppose ‘of or relating to something that stretches’ does get us to the answer. | |
| 9 | Colour almost ringing black bird (5) |
| GREBE – GREEn (colour ‘almost’) ringing B(lack) | |
| 10 | Expecting not to have been blackballed? (2,3,4) |
| IN THE CLUB – double-ish definition: the first as in pregnant, originally ‘in the pudding club’, and is presumably related to ‘a bun in the oven’; as to the history of the second, Wiki only says the secret voting practice has been around since the 17th century. | |
| 12 | Row, missing last cup game (3) |
| TIE – TIER (row) ‘missing last’ | |
| 13 | Ponder about one’s bad handling (6) |
| MISUSE – MUSE (ponder) about I’S (one’s) | |
| 15 | Root cause of rusty vehicle? (6) |
| CARROT – With a cryptic hint via the terrible blight of car rot (if it existed – hence the question mark). | |
| 17 | Even, so far (3) |
| YET – double definition | |
| 18 | End spell of guard duty: it makes time stand still (9) |
| STOPWATCH – STOP (end) WATCH (spell of guard duty), with a nicely oblique definition. | |
| 20 | Hanging is somewhat embarrassing (5) |
| ARRAS – is ‘somewhat’ embARASSing. Definitely one of those words only known to me from crosswords past. | |
| 22 | Personal assistant runs meeting place briefly for newcomer (7) |
| PARVENU – PA (personal assistant) R(uns) VENUe (meeting place) ‘briefly’. All parvenus are newcomers; not all newcomers are parvenus: the sources describe PARVENU as ‘usually’ derogatory, but I’d like to see a case of it being used neutrally. | |
| 23 | Teaches chap to move emergency exit (6,5) |
| ESCAPE HATCH – anagram (to move) of TEACHES CHAP | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Earth’s molten core (5) |
| HEART – anagram (‘s = is molten) of EARTH | |
| 2 | Players regularly fancy long hair (9) |
| ACTRESSES – f A n C y ‘relularly’, TRESSES (long hair) | |
| 3 | Oscar caught by sinister sect involving magic (6) |
| OCCULT – O(scar) C(aught) by CULT (sinister sect) | |
| 4 | Air for example to rise and fall (3) |
| SAG – GAS (air, for example) ‘to rise’ in a down clue means to reverse. | |
| 5 | A more suitable accomplice (7) |
| ABETTER – A, BETTER (more suitable) | |
| 6 | Footballers on trip securing two hotels, last-minute (8-4) |
| ELEVENTH-HOUR – ELEVEN (a term for a football team) on TOUR (trip) securing two H(otels) | |
| 7 | Reckless, putting wicked Mike into welfare supervision (5-3-4) |
| DEVIL-MAY-CARE – put EVIL (wicked) M(ike) into DAYCARE (welfare supervision) | |
| 11 | Sausage exploded covering nasty wart (9) |
| BRATWURST – BURST (exploded) covering an anagram (nasty) of WART | |
| 14 | Ridiculing racist, I broadcast (7) |
| SATIRIC – anagram (broadcast) of RACIST I | |
| 16 | Sound of military band low, needing to rise? I’m disgusted (6) |
| OOMPAH – to MOO = to low, as in a cow, rise = reverse, and PAH (I’m disgusted). A ‘repetitive rhythmical sound in a band’, previously only half-known to me from Oompa-Loompas. | |
| 19 | Saw points in power to produce desired effect (5) |
| TEETH – double definition | |
| 21 | Small drink is tipped over piano (3) |
| SIP – IS ‘tipped’ = SI, goes above P(iano) | |
8.37. I found this tricky and was slow to get going, but when I switched to the downs I made better progress. HEAD OF STATE (ho ho) was my LOI and only appeared with all the crossers. Thanks Teazel and Roly. (Roly at 16dn OOMPAH I think Pah! is I’m disgusted, not sure where the ugh comes from…)
Thanks, will correct the blog. Yes I’m not sure where that crept in from, mixing my forms of disgust!
BTW I’ve never heard anyone say PAH when disgusted…
Many years ago we had a contributor who regularly signed off with a PAH! whenever a clue incurred his/her displeasure.
Nothing too hard here. I’m surprised we haven’t seen car rot before. Everyone should know arras from Hamlet, but I’m not sure how much bratwurst comes up in the UK – I would associate with with Wisconsin.
Time: 6:32
Re Arras:
Hmn, yes you’re quite right – I should take that as my cue to dust off a copy and actually read the thing…
I was stabbed there in our school production!
Maybe no one remembers the Rusty Lancia club?
Oh my goodness, takes us back… we had a 1973 Lancia Fulvia – sold to us by a young chap leaving the area, said he longed to take it with him but couldn’t. We saw him by chance, several years later. He seemed to be avoiding us. Curious, I cornered him – told him how much we loved the car. He was stunned. Turns out he had thought it was on its last rusty legs…. how wrong he was! (Heavy to drive though – engine was well forward and the Bath hills were not always kind).
There’s no shortage of BRATWURST in UK supermarkets, usually pre-sliced and packaged in the ones I use.
10 minutes. Great fun at times.
I always have a BRATWURST when the German Christmas Market is on in Manchester.
Unlike LindsayO, HEAD OF STATE was my first one in – a guess, a guffaw when it worked and a great start to the puzzle! Pretty much a straight run through the across clues from that, but ARRAS put an end to my hopes of a one-pass solve (I apologise to Vinyl1 for not knowing it and will brush up on my Hamlet…). Only DEVIL MAY CARE caused a significant hold-up after that, put in from checkers as my penultimate answer before the aforementioned Arras completed the puzzle in a creditable 10:o6. Enjoyed OOMPAH simply because it is an unusual word to see in a puzzle.
Many thanks Roly for the blog.
Air is a mixture of gases.
I didn’t get on with this puzzle at all. Just not on the right wavelength this morning. Spotted two anagrams but only solved 23ac. Lost patience after the first pass.
So is natural gas, marsh gas, coal gas and poison gas. Boyles Gas Law was first proposed when air was thought to be a single element.
A gas is defined as being one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid, solid, and plasma) rather than being restricted to a single element or compound.
So yes, air is a gas. And, as Merlin says, it obeys Boyle’s Law.
I just didn’t like this puzzle 🙁
My statement was air is a mixture of gases which is a trueism.
Mainly straightforward but DEVIL MAY CARE bunged a big spoke in the wheels of this very entertaining puzzle.
Started with HEART and finished with the unknown ARRAS in a bang average 7.36. COD to the rotten car.
Thanks to Roly and Teazel
Annoyingly couldn’t stop myself putting in the, in my mind, usual spelling ABETTOR. Always check the clue
Not only the usual spelling … the correct legal spelling (Accessories and Abettors Act 1861).
Just squeaked out of the SCC at 19.56. Several clues required a handful of attempts as the crossers came, and eventually all done and parsed with exception of teeth. Had the t, read “saw points” and said teeth, but couldn’t make any sense of the rest so left it, then as each of the other crossers arrived still couldn’t parse but bunged in as LOi. Thanks Roly for the blog and this parsing.
Thanks Teazel, really liked devil may care
I really enjoyed that but found it tough and was not on wavelength, limping home in 09:05 for a Poor Day.
Issues – didn’t crack the cryptic hint at 1a until I had almost all checkers (groan); very slow to get ELEVENTH HOUR; didn’t associate OOMPAH with “military” bands (if it had said German or brass bands I’d have got there faster); and put GAS instead of SAG which delayed GREBE. But my real issue was with LOI TEETH – I didn’t even consider a double definition with a clue that long, so tried thinking of synonyms for “saw” along the adage/proverb line; tried working points of the compass into a word meaning power; tried P for power; tried to make “touch” (when I had the T and the H) work, on the basis that if you half close your eyes and squint a bit then it could just about (possibly maybe) mean “produce the desired effect” (she’s got the touch/Midas touch). In the end when I had T-E-H I tried the points of the compass again, which eventually gave me EE, which eventually led to a proper forehead slap. What a farrago.
Anyway. Like Polonius, I shall now go and hide behind the ARRAS. At least that was a write-in. Jolly good puzzle, well beaten today, many thanks Teazel and roly.
Stared at this, couldn’t find anything except perhaps oxygen as the “root cause of rusty vehicle”. FOI SATIRIC, nothing like a good anagram to get one started. So reckon I did well to get (finally) within two. No wonder: NHO GREBE, and SAG just too difficult. Thanks, Roly, but GREBE not worthy of comment?
Not a rare bird? Great crested grebes turn up all over the place, lots of other species around the coast and on TV!
Re: Grebe
I thought I’d covered myself in the intro by saying with a catch-all ‘A few bits of trickier vocab if you haven’t encountered them before’!
But grebe actually crops up fairly frequently, so it didn’t cross my mind to mention it: 10 times in the last decade in the QC alone, with its previous appearance about 18 months ago.
Thank you, Roly, most kind. I must have missed it. I’ll try and learn!
9:12
Very slow start, but once got HEAD OF STATE (odd clue, that) things moved quickly. Tried the TENON saw with E,N being the points in TON, didn’t quite work, was LOI, TEETH.
COD BRATWURST
09:42. I didn’t have too many problems but confess I didn’t parse TEETH properly and had to clear the mind of KING OF SPADES for 1a to get properly started. I only know ARRAS from previous appearances here and in similar places – I’m embarrassed that my knowledge of Hamlet only goes about as far as “To be or not to be…”.
I liked the mental picture of the cosmetically effective exploding sausage at 11d.
Thanks to Roly and Teazel
I enjoyed this even though I almost hit the SCC (and had to correct a typo, RARROT).
Some demanding clues but manageable once I relaxed and accepted I wasn’t going to manage a fast time.
Lots of potential CODs but I need to go back through the answers with the help of Roly’s blog to put them into perspective. I liked HEAD OF STATE and GREBE and biffed TEETH (it made no sense to me beyond saw points at first and is a weak clue imo). Also biffed BRATWURST before parsing it on completion.
Thanks to Teazel for an immersive session and Roly for a helpful blog.
From MAGMA to HEART in 7:48. I must have forgotten to switch from Concise to Cryptic mode when I started this puzzle! Anyway ELASTIC resulted in the removel of the molten core. OCCULT was first correct 1 in. TEETH was POI followed by HEART. IN THE CLUB and HEAD OF STATE raised smiles. Thanks Teazel and Roly.
I was about to enter MAGMA too until I woke up to the fact that this wasn’t the Concise!
LOI TEETH – only word that fitted and couldn’t see how it parsed. Immediate thoughts of Hamlet with ARRAS – the only time I’ve come across the word. Does anyone say In the Club/Bun in the Oven any more? Suspect millennials wouldn’t have a clue. A witty enjoyable puzzle. Thanks Teazel and Roly.
21 minutes so plenty of seats left in the Club. However it seemed much faster and I was surprised when I stopped the clock. I thoroughly enjoyed this and marked quite a number of clues as contender for COD on my way through. The only clue I didn’t really like was 19dn TEETH, the second part of which seems a bit weak to me.
FOI – 10ac IN THE CLUB
LOI – 13ac MISUSE
COD – too many delightful clues to pick out just one. My favourites were HEAD OF STATE, IN THE CLUB, CARROT, ARRAS, DEVIL MAY CARE and BRATWURST.
Thanks to Teazel and Rolytoly.
What’s the concern about second part of TEETH? Think of it in the sense of legal or regulatory work. If OFWAT had any teeth, we’d have clean rivers etc.
19 mins…
Nearly put something else in for 10ac starting with “Up’, but it didn’t fit. The rest went in steadily, but those longer clues required some thought. NHO of 20ac “Arras” and not sure I’ve come across it in crosswords before.
FOI – 1dn “Heart”
LOI – 7dn “Devil May Care”
COD – 15ac “Carrot” – I know it shouldn’t – but it still made me chuckle.
Thanks as usual!
I found this a lot of fun with clever wordplay and witty clues finishing in an acceptable, for me, 27 minutes.
TEETH was LOI and I share the reservations above but more than made up for by HEAD OF STATE and SAG.
Thanks Teasel and Roly.
10:29 for an enjoyable run-around. Fair amount of bif then parse (OCCULT, BRATWURST) or not parse (TEETH, OOMPAH). Did wonder if there was something Hamletty about the HEAD OF STATE, ARRAS, spell of guard duty & ACTRESSES but alas (TIC).
Thanks to Teazel & Roly.
13:29 for the Quitch for the solve. The SW side was somewhat slower mainly because of the presence of ARRAS (nho) SATIRIC (nho in that form) OOMPAH, BRATWURST. TEETH LOI with fingers crossed due to attempting to put points of the compass (EE) and only parsed as double def post solve.
Enjoyed the breakdown for ELEVENTH-HOUR and IN-THE-CLUB properly parsed for first def post-solve.
Thanks to Roly and Teazel
Goodness, where to start here!
Some lovely clueing, but a lot unfamiliar to me. Did not know the first def for IN THE CLUB, but it couldn’t be anything else with all the checkers. NHO DEVIL-MAY-CARE (generational thing?) but worked it out from the wordplay. I discounted a hidden in 20ac early on, but by the end only ARRAS made sense, so in it went. Probably only vaguely heard of PARVENU, again got from the cryptic. Had to convince myself that OOMPAH was a single word and not hyphenated or split. Had no issue with HEAD OF STATE or BRATWURST. Overall a disappointing 20:33. Thanks Teazel and Roly!
Another toughie (for me anyway). Did finish, but with several unparsed. LOI TEETH, where I couldn’t see what was going on until I read the blog; very clever.
Thanks to Roly and Teazel
Very slow start until 23a got me going: and 7d followed immediately! Overall I found this one tough and – sad to say – a dnf because the carrot eluded me. At 11d I toyed for ages with some sort of BANGER (sausage exploded) but the W R T had to be a wurst and BRAT soon followed! Delicious from late night street vendors in German cities, with a paper tray laden with mayo! Enjoyed ACTRESSES and ABETTER. Thanks s & b.
I was actually on wavelength today. I didn’t know ARRAS = tapestry hanging but the wordplay was clear. My LOsI were TEETH and OOMPAH. 6:01 Thanks Roly
Goodness me, this one was so good I felt obligated to post and say so! This is what marketing folks know as “active satisfaction”. I and Mrs SITM have been doing the QCs for two and a half years now and generally manage to stay out of the SCC, coming in around 15 – 18 minutes. However, this one we did in 10:47 and we absolutely loved it. Everything good from a QC. Not so easy that it was pointless, but nothing too arcane or convoluted – it was just the right amount of ‘not trying too hard’. We normally struggle to agree on a COD but today it was really difficult to find the best one from a bunch of really pleasing clues. Wish we could have more like these!
FOI 1a
LOI 17a
COD(s) 18a, 7d, 15a, 5d, 16d!
Great blog btw. Thanks to blogger and Teazel
Hello! We are in the same solving generation, welcome to the blog.
Yes hello and welcome to the blog! That’s great progress you’ve both made in such a short time, and a cracking solve today – good effort!
A slow start but finished all correct. Biffed TEETH, BRATWURST and ARRAS.
Lots of clever clues inc ELEVENTH HOUR and OCCULT.
Quite relieved to come across the occasional easy clue like ABETTER and ESCAPE HATCH.
Favourite today was OOMPAH. Thanks vm, Roly.
Certain people may like to know that Wykehamists consider Etonians PARVENUs because Winchester College was founded in 1382 and Eton not until 1440.
Enjoyed this, pitched just right for me
Really enjoyed the puzzle today, got really excited when working out the longer clues particularly, with my COD being DEVIL MAY COME. Took me ages as many clues were words I haven’t heard of, so had to rely on getting the cryptic parts correct and then hoping that it was a word (e.g. PARVENU which I was convinced was just a random array of letters – imagine my surprise at finding it was not only a real word but also correct!) As with Roly, I only thought of OOMPAH from Roald Dahl.
Took me 2 hours, with some gaps in between, so not sure I can call it a ‘quick’ cryptic per say, but very pleased to have completed without any help. From reading other comments, it seems that this was mild for Teazel; I quake to think of what a difficult day looks like. Learned a lot, as always, so thanks Roly and Teazel!
Well done with the finish! And you enjoyed it – that’s the main thing, no matter how long it takes…
It is quite a gradual process, but along with stock things like c for caught, and flower for river (as in a thing that flows), even quite a lot of the more obscure words crop up fairly frequently, say once a year-ish, for parvenu and grebe, for example. Don’t fret the tough days: when you have a bit of a foundation to work from, it all starts to flow a bit more, and it’s generally easier to finish a half-full grid than to get to a half-full grid from empty. But well done on the finish, and of course the main thing is to enjoy it!
Last two in were STOPWATCH, followed very slowly by TEETH (same issues as Templar above). Didn’t parse the latter but obvious now of course. Lots to like, but COD to the rather brilliant ELEVENTH-HOUR. Knew ARRAS, but not from the play! Many thanks both.
Just into the SCC today with 21:21. I blame having a minor plumbing issue on my mind, as well as not being familiar with Hamlet or PARVENUs, or with the word SATIRIC, come to that. Anyway, got there in the end. Thanks all.
I went right through every clue & only got 23across! Took over an hour to complete .. so very slow to get my TEETH into it today.. but DELIGHTED to complete it in the
end! THANKYOU to all you bright sparks. I’m definitely enjoying these quick cryptics..& your comments.. although slow I am very satisfied when I finish . As a nanny..would the French call me a PARVENU or parvenuE?
You would be a PARVENUE, though I am sure you are not!
I found this very difficult (though I am at the bottom of the curve) and gave up after solving only four clues after 15 mins. I don’t understand some of the explained solutions eg 1ac, 9ac, 12ac, 17ac, 20ac and the perennial problem of initial letters in 3dn – why is caught = c? Think of any word and you can shorten it to the first letter – seems to be the case, which just multiplies the possible solutions! Just a bad day perhaps as I have finished a few in the last week or so!
c for caught as in cricket scoring. ‘Molten’ indicates an anagram in 1d. Almost any softening or shaping word can mean ‘watch out for anagram’.
Crosswordese is a new language which one learns over time. (several years in my case). Chambers Crossword Dictionary might help you. As for 1a, The letter S begins State, and so is Head of State.
I remember finding the first letter thing really confusing when I started these so I empathise! It took me a while to learn that letters are never shortened randomly; they are always either an established short form in (fairly) common usage, e.g M for male and F for female (and, yes, C for caught in a cricketing sense), or they are indicated by wordplay. Look out for ‘initially’, ‘in the first instance’, etc. It does get better with practice but can take a while!
17 minutes.
NHO ARRAS.
8.17 After my first pass there were a lot of gaps, including the long ones, but the answers were very biffable with checkers. LOI MISUSE. I liked OOMPAH. Thanks rolytoly and Teazel.
12:47, NHO ARRAS but then I don’t smoke so I’m not particularly familiar with Hamlets or tobacco products in general.
Thank you for the blog!
10:24. I found the downs much more doable than the acrosses. IN THE CLUB was FOI, with a little wince at the twee-ness, and LOI was SIP. COD to HEAD OF STATE.
Thanks to Teazel and rolytoly.
Up in North Wales on a break at present, and having spent an energy sapping day in the sun and heat, perhaps it was not the best time to tackle a crossword.
Having said that I did sneak under target at 9.28, so not too bad after all. A good puzzle with only one clue I failed to parse. A double definition for TEETH just never occurred to me. Particularly liked HEAD OF STATE although I failed to solve it on the first pass.
8:47
Not sure I liked TEETH
Thanks Roly and Teazel
10:13 with LOI TEETH going in without having appreciated the second definition. Didn’t know ARRAS from Hamlet but the town sticks in my mind from my youth when, on our only family holiday abroad, a wing and a prayer affair in an over packed car, we had an unscheduled long weekend there due to a car breakdown on the way to Italy. Pretty sure that none of us appreciated its tapestry heritage at the time! Thank you, Rolytoly and Teazel.
Some days, and this is one of them, I start the puzzle and all the clues look like pure gibberish. After getting HEART I came up empty (ok, I wrote in GAS but that was wrong) until TIE, and the whole first pass left a very empty grid. Not until PARVENU did I start being able to simply follow the recipe in the wordplay to the answer. This seems to be my second encounter with the mysterious IN THE CLUB. Finished after 14:26 with the excellent 19d. As usual Teazel’s sense of humor produced a very entertaining puzzle. COD OOMPAH.
Thanks Teazel and roly. I couldn’t parse DEVIL MAY CARE because for me “day care” is child care, so thanks for the full explanation. Thanks also for the origin story of “in the club”.
what about areas rails
much used in fencing
hard work this evening with a certain amount of biffing
2 hours on 15 x 15. Thought I had completed it but (of course) I hadn’t. One wrong answer. Now feel totally deflated☹️.
My thanks to Teazel and rolytoly.
12a In the club. I think the origin of blackballing goes back to ancient Athens. Ostracise, from the Greek for broken pottery was used, I think at the trial of Socrates. Citizens could vote at trials; one shard in the wrong pot was enough to have him killed.
Socrates will be sorely missed, a lovely little thinker but a bugger when he’s pissed (Monty Python.)
20a Arras, definitely in a Shakespeare play. Someone is hiding. Is it 12th Night? No, vinyl1 says Hamlet.
4d Sag; started with Gas which didn’t help.
Well, we roll in late – and rather slow. Doing okay until significantly delayed by a few like NHO ARRAS, GREBE and TIE (the latter NHO by me in context intended – himself knew of it). All up slower than hoped – finished just in the SCC, however, will be better educated when we come out (hopefully tomorrow).
Thank you Teazel and Rolytoly – a good blog.
About 5 mins on phone. V late to the party but I found this one of the very best puzzles – witty throughout.
7:06. Very happy with my time, and noting it here so the QUITCH picks it up for posterity. Terrific puzzle and blog – thanks Rolytoly and Teazel.
I’m starstruck to see you here
Done a day late, I’m afraid. And for a long time I wished I hadn’t bothered to start it. Only four clues written in as the quarter hour ticked by, but I refused to panic and still came home in 29 minutes (just inside my half hour target).
Not sure why I couldn’t get going. All of the clues to work on at that stage and plenty of ideas, but hardly any bore fruit.
FOI: TIE
LOI & COD: CARROT
Thanks to Roly and Teazel.