Well, what a week it’s been in Crosswordland, at least for those using the Crossword Club. I guess Quicky solvers have been relatively unaffected. The Club site, which now includes the Quicky along with its big brother and lots of other good stuff, has been completely overhauled. The new format has a look-and-feel consistent with the paper’s website, the one to which you good people are presumably accustomed.
Anyway I hope you’re not adversely affected by the changes, or at least able to make the adjustments where necessary. I for one welcome our new overlords, though I feel for Sotira and the TLS crew who appear to have lost access to their favourite fix.
As for today’s Quicky? I thought it was easier than some Fridays, but there was some clever cluing on display. SMOKE DETECTOR was on the fiendish side, and consequently my COD.
My time was 3:43, faster than usual. Thanks Rongo, now on with the show.
Clues are reproduced in blue, with the definition underlined. Anagram indicators are bolded and italicised. Then there’s the answer IN BOLD, followed by the parsing of the wordplay. (ABC)* means ‘anagram of ABC’.
| Across | |
| 1 | Church service prompt cued badly, caused by large-scale Creation? (4-8) |
| MASS-PRODUCED – MASS (church service) + PROD (prompt) + (CUED)* | |
| 9 | Went on horseback before old cowboy show? (5) |
| RODEO – RODE (went on horseback) + O (old) | |
| 10 | Fools in underwater vessel returning permit for cheap travel (3,4) |
| BUS PASS – SAPS (fools) in SUB (underwater vessel) all reversed (returning) | |
| 11 | Pray to some in centre — atheists! (7) |
| ENTREAT – Hidden (some) in cENTRE ATheists | |
| 12 | Curse small effect of erosion (5) |
| SWEAR – S (small) + WEAR (effect of erosion) | |
| 13 | Room in jail is curtailed after equality package (6) |
| PARCEL – CEL [CELL (room in jail) curtailed] after PAR (equality) | |
| 14 | Guard second way in (6) |
| SENTRY – S (second) + ENTRY (way in) | |
| 17 | Line in front of church recess for sin (5) |
| LAPSE – L (line) + APSE (church recess) | |
| 19 | Prison term unpopular for gap year, perhaps (4,3) |
|
TIME OUT – TIME (prison term) + OUT (unpopular) Ah, the gap year. My son seems to have one every second year. Sometimes with a year off in between. |
|
| 21 | 1960s dance queen causing a storm in America (7) |
|
TWISTER – TWIST (1960s dance) + ER (queen) Nice misdirection until you lift and separate dance and queen. |
|
| 22 | Six left keeping New York’s old records (5) |
|
VINYL – VI (six) + L (left) “keeping” NY (New York) And a shout-out to our boss blogger! Mum threw away all my old 45’s a year or two after I moved out of home. What was she thinking? |
|
| 23 | Confused rower’s pedalo driven by daylight (5-7) |
|
SOLAR-POWERED – (ROWERS PEDALO)* My only exposure to the word “pedalo” was in relation to some Freddy Flintoff hi-jinks in the Caribbean a decade ago. Apparently he was just trying to find Ian Botham for a nightcap, but it cost him the England vice-captaincy. |
|
| Down | |
| 2 | Business inspector, one who listens (7) |
| AUDITOR – Double definition | |
| 3 | Preserved Parisian and bully taking the top off fire safety device (5,8) |
|
SMOKE DETECTOR – SMOKED (preserved) + ET (Parisian “and”) + ECTOR [HECTOR (bully) without the first letter (taking the top off)] Nice one setter. |
|
| 4 | Discount to exist, coming up in proportional price (6) |
| REBATE – EB [BE (exist) reversed (coming up)] in RATE (proportional price) | |
| 5 | Video stream is showing devastation in this? (8,5) |
|
DISASTER MOVIE – (VIDEO STREAM IS)* A self-referential clue, almost an &LIT. |
|
| 6 | Caught, possesses ecstasy, being run after (5) |
| CHASE – C (caught) + HAS (possesses) + E (ecstasy) | |
| 7 | Break up time, separating Desmond and Orbison, say (7) |
| DESTROY – T (time) separating DES (Desmond) and ROY (Orbison, say) | |
| 8 | Cheese not lasting long when cut (4) |
| BRIE – BRIEf (not lasting long) when cut | |
| 13 | System of exercises and dishes containing iodine (7) |
| PILATES – PLATES (dishes) containing I (iodine) | |
| 15 | Beat edges of thinner part of a pound (7) |
| TROUNCE – TR (edges of ThinneR) + OUNCE (part of a pound) | |
| 16 | Before entering stone circle, sound heard from both sides (6) |
| STEREO – ERE (before) “entering” ST (stone) + O (circle) | |
| 18 | Friend accepting greeting shows bottle (5) |
| PHIAL – PAL (friend) “accepting” HI (greeting) | |
| 20 | Short story about powdered mineral (4) |
|
TALC – TAL [short TALe (story)] + C (about) “C” in this case being the abbreviation for “circa” |
|
On the other hand, here is a puzzle with both ‘vinyl’ and ‘stereo’, so how could I not like it?
I didn’t consciously sign up for a challenge, but I’m always happy to join the fun.
Hope it didn’t count my time yesterday, which was officially five and a half hours.
(BTW, today I’ve gone in to the Club and filled in the grid, having solved it earlier on the Times website. I paused long enough for my recorded time to reflect my actual solving time).
I regard the whole leaderboard exercise as something for competitive spirits which doesn’t really include me. I used the word ‘challenge’ in the sense in that it challenges solvers to measure their performance against others. I can see its usefulness for the main puzzle as there is an annual championship associated with the 15×15 and the leaderboard is handy for those who may wish to prepare themselves for that and at the same time suss out the level of competition they may be up against.
But I’m less convinced of the value of having a leaderboard for the Quickie, especially if it’s going to encourage the big guns who have never shown any interest in the puzzle previously to take part and dominate it. I assume at the moment it’s being used mainly for testing and practice purposes.
One can solve on line without appearing on the leaderboard by changing one’s profile to ‘Private’.
Edited at 2017-08-04 09:00 am (UTC)
Edited at 2017-08-04 10:14 am (UTC)
I’ve a cupbaord full of vinyl – not all of it in stereo – with most of the ‘classical’ stuff dating from a time when the budget labels were expanding their numbers and those were the performances I could best afford as student. I’m sure there were better recordings available but these old friends were played incessantly back in the day. Very rarely I’m afraid since the arrival of CDs but I couldn’t bear to part with them.
Favourite labels were Ace of Clubs (I have around 20 of these), Saga, Classics For Pleasure, Supraphon, Pye Golden Guinea, not forgetting Nonesuch and Turnabout with their colourful sleeves. Must dig some of these out later and give them a spin!
Edited at 2017-08-04 05:52 am (UTC)
Nothing jackkt listed is of much value; he should have bought blue-and-silver EMI SAX violin records with Leonid Kogan, which now go for thousands of pounds to Japanese and Chinese collectors
I wonder if this will continue (and perhaps some of the regulars here will take part) or are they just using it to test the new system and develop techniques to build up speed for success at the 15×15 challenge? Time will tell. Galspray is the only TftT QC regular to be listed so far.
Edited at 2017-08-04 06:07 am (UTC)
The well known Ray Orbison!
Smoke detector held me up, I wanted to have store detector but it obviously has no connection with fire.
COD 6d chase
Am I the only one who still does that?
Yesterday’s by Howzat was the hardest by far of the week. And I had time to look at Monday’s 15×15 which was probably the easiest that I can remember.
I made hard work of today’s QC by putting Time Off at 19a and Parity at 13a. I need a Silly Error Detector.
Smoke Detector was my LOI after revisit and corrections -also COD. No time recorded but quick until I ground to a halt. David
Not sure about this leaderboard malarky, especially as I solve on the back of Times2 in the old fashioned way.
Perhaps it’ll be sorted tomorrow?
Mothers have a lot to answer for – it’s not just vinyl that gets thrown out. My husband hasn’t forgiven his Mum for disposing of all his toy cars (from the fifties) some still neatly boxed. They would have been worth a fortune… so he says! MM