I found this at the easier end of the spectrum, although three clues in the NW corner delayed me for 4 minutes. I finished my paper copy all correct in 13:45, but then made a typo when entering it online to form the skeleton for this blog. So my record shows 13:45 with 2 errors, since my typo was a crossing letter. Grrr.
I think there’s something for everyone here: highbrow references (Chekhov, Elgar), popular culture (The Simpsons), modern lingo (the escort’s pronouns) and a sprinkling of history (Macedon, sou).
My FOI was OBOE, and my LOI was MACEDON. COD to CHEKHOV, with honorable mentions to BEAT A RETREAT and STRETCHER.
Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough.
| Across | |
| 1 | Doctor climbed up and down (6) |
| MOROSE – MO (doctor; medical officer) + ROSE (climbed up). | |
| 4 | Old boy regularly loses instrument (4) |
| OBOE – OB (old boy) + every other letter [regularly] of lOsEs. | |
| 9 | Writer of plays: mark as completed for audience (7) |
| CHEKHOV – sounds like [for audience] “check off” (mark as completed).
This one got a smiley face when I spotted it. Getting the final V was the hint that I was probably looking for a specific playwright: until then I had been looking for something like BARD + TIC to mean audience. |
|
| 10 | Composer locked in hotel garage (5) |
| ELGAR – Hidden [locked] in hotEL GARage. | |
| 11 | Tired out after recording? Shame (9) |
| DISCREDIT – Anagram [out] of TIRED after DISC (recording).
That’s “shame” as a verb. Even with all the crossers bar the leading D, it took me a long time to see this. |
|
| 12 | A note sounded by Homer (3) |
| DOH – I’m going to call this an &lit clue, although I also considered calling it a cryptic definition or even a double definition.
The Homer in question is Simpson, not the Greek. And the note is the first in the do-re-mi system. |
|
| 13 | Unimportant person’s criticism of thin wine? (6) |
| NOBODY – This one is definitely a double definition. | |
| 15 | Newly-wed adopts golf, a tricky game (6) |
| BRIDGE – BRIDE (newly-wed) with G (golf in the NATO alphabet).
Bridge is a ‘tricky’ game in that it is a trick-based game. Very Uxbridge English Dictionary. |
|
| 17 | Small coin once inadequate for Arab market (3) |
| SOU – SOU “Inadequate for” feels like a bit of a loose indicator for “missing the last letter”. |
|
| 18 | Elastic sort of brick? (9) |
| STRETCHER – Another one I’m calling a double definition.
A stretcher in brickwork is a brick laid so that its long narrow face is visible, rather than its short narrow face or the top or bottom. If you think of the classic 8-spot Lego piece, it is laid as a stretcher when the long smooth side is visible. For some reason I knew this: it’s probably come up in a crossword before. |
|
| 21 | Escort’s two pronouns (5) |
| USHER – US + HER (two pronouns).
A trick worth remembering here: “Escort’s” looks like it is the possessive, but the way to make sense of this is to see it as an abbreviation indication, for “Escort is two pronouns”. |
|
| 22 | Sort of chart, plain black and white (7) |
| PIEBALD – PIE (chart) + BALD (plain). | |
| 23 | Stuck, showing the wrong time (4) |
| FAST – Another double definition.
Yes, I tried to make an anagram out of THE + T. |
|
| 24 | Master reorganised pupils’ group (6) |
| STREAM – Anagram [reorganised] of MASTER. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Come and go around ancient kingdom (7) |
| MACEDON – Anagram [go around] of COME AND.
Now I write that, it makes me wonder how it took me so long. I didn’t spot the anagram until after I’d (finally) filled in the answer. |
|
| 2 | Drums for Highland dances (5) |
| REELS – another double definition.
Drums as in drums of wire, not the percussion instruments. |
|
| 3 | Has arrested a criminal in arid area (6,6) |
| SAHARA DESERT – Anagram [criminal] of HAS ARRESTED A. | |
| 5 | Catch husband with parent: capital (7) |
| BAGHDAD – BAG (catch) + H (husband) + DAD (parent). | |
| 6 | Soil the planet (5) |
| EARTH – yet another double definition. I’m losing count. | |
| 7 | Very keen psalmist loses his head (4) |
| AVID – |
|
| 8 | Attend a corps feast, then leave hurriedly (4,1,7) |
| BEAT A RETREAT – BE AT (attend) + A + RE (corps: Royal Engineers) + TREAT (feast). | |
| 14 | Looks embarrassed, left in the undergrowth (7) |
| BLUSHES – L (left) in BUSHES (undergrowth). | |
| 16 | Almost sooner than expected, make millions out of title (7) |
| EARLDOM – EARL |
|
| 17 | Scrape mark, small, on end of sleeve (5) |
| SCUFF – S (small) + CUFF (end of sleeve). | |
| 19 | Wholly engrossed, knocked sharply to be heard (4) |
| RAPT – Sounds like [to be heard] “rapped” (knocked sharply). | |
| 20 | Swell in endless bliss (5) |
| HEAVE – HEAVE As in “the heave of the ocean”. |
|
12:36. DISCREDIT, EARLDOM, and BEAT A RETREAT were my picks. I thought of LEHAR before I saw ELGAR and now realize the two names are 80% anagrams.
DNK the brick meaning of STRETCHER, and couldn’t think of a drum meaning of REELS. At 8d, ‘attend’ suggested BEAT, which gave me the answer. I wasted some time on LOI 23ac, until I finally noticed that I’d put in BLUSHED. 6:15.
Same here for reels & blusheD. But I did know that meaning of stretcher.
I found this pretty hard, held up by MOROSE (forgot about MO…), CHEKHOV (isn’t this super hard?), DISCREDIT (disc=recording stumped me), SOU (NHO), STRETCHER (NHO), MACEDON (NHO), AVID (NHO DAVID), and RE for corps….
NHO David? as in D and Goliath? He has traditionally–and, I believe, groundlessly– been credited with the authorship of the Psalms of the Old Testament, hence ‘psalmist’ in the clue.
Might David (‘NHO David’) be having a slight lend of us here?
Not familiar in relation to psalmists!
Liked 13a and the tricky 8d.
Finished in 10.54
Same here, the snitch score of 97 which is a bit better than yesterday should be the other way round I feel.
I found this a bit tougher, not seeing morose right away, and putting in the wrong answer for discredit before erasing it. Sahara Desert was obvious, but beat a retreat was not. Fortunately, I’m wise to the Homer trick.
Time: 10 minutes
Thanks Doofenschmirtz – similar experience but in 37mins not 13. Tough puzzle with some NHOs but enough indicators to get there in the end…
10 minutes. No unknowns but I lost a moment on MACEDON where ‘go around’ suggested an enclosure when there wasn’t one. I learnt of STRETCHER as a type of brick from doing Times crossword puzzles so I’m a little surprised that Kevin didn’t know of it. I was going to find examples but it’s a common enough word and has appeared here many times with other meanings.
I found this one slow going for some reason – nothing wrong with the clues, just grey cells on a go-slow. But eventually all green in 16 minutes, and a sigh of relief at the end as I discover I do after all know how to spell Chekhov (not Czechov or several other possibilities). BEAT A RETREAT my favourite for its 5-component construction.
Many thanks Doofers for the blog
Cedric
Found this tricky in places due to my lack of knowledge i.e. the brick, David being a psalmist, reels and drums being synonymous (I wrote this in a deleted it a couple of times). I also missed the anagram indicators for 1d and 11a and spent time looking for homophone of ‘ticked’ at 9a.
However everything was fairly clued and I enjoyed the puzzle and the education.
Started with ELGAR and finished with DISCREDIT in 10.32.
Thanks to Doofers.
As I said above, groundlessly. From Wiki
While many of the psalms contain attributions to the name of King David and other Biblical figures including Asaph, the sons of Korah, and Solomon, David’s authorship is not accepted by most modern Bible scholars, who instead attribute the composition of the psalms to various authors writing between the 9th and 5th centuries BC. The psalms were written from the time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan to the post-exilic period and the book was probably compiled and edited into its present form during the post-exilic period in the 5th century BC.[5]
Solved steadily, but biffed AVID, being unaware of David as a psalmist, and REELS, only highland dances I know! Knew STRETCHER from when we had building work done. COD CHEKHOV.
Thought I did well on a tough puzzle but shot down by not checking off CHEKHOV, I went with Checkov.
Also held up by BLUSHED for BLUSHER.
COD MACEDON
Tough in places. Stuck eventually in the NW but googled Psalmist revealing David and AVID which unlocked the rest. Though even with all the crossers MOROSE and DISCREDIT took a lot of working out. So a DNF after 44m but a good puzzle.
I liked REELS, STREAM and BRIDGE.
NHO STRETCHER but biffable.
This was on my wavelength and slowly worked through to finish in just under 30 mins to enjoy a well deserved coffee and croissant in the club. DNK stretcher was a brick, but assumed so, and struggled to parse Retreat, but otherwise, as per @newsold I found everything fairly clued.
COD Chekhov. Thanks Doofers and Teazel
It can be quite fun playing “guess the setter” when phone solving; AVID made me think that this was an Izetti. Fortunately I did a bit better with the clues and came home in reggo 08:29 for 1.4K and a Decent Day.
LOI FAST was unparsed – I got fixated on T for time, and spent ages trying to understand the remaining FAS!
Many thanks Teazel and Doof.
10.17, starting with OBOE and finishing with BAGHDAD and my favourite DOH. I think that should be DOH! Good puzzle from Teazel, with a few toughies to keep us honest. I tried to get a playwright ending in ‘don’, as in ‘done’, as in (sort of) marked as completed. Got nowhere. Thanks for the blog Doof, I never got REELS as in wire drum. And MACEDON was an anagram? Doh!
PS: For those tempted to take a walk on the wild side, today’s 15×15 is worth a shot.
Thanks for the tip on the 15×15!
Straightforward and enjoyable – another proper QC in fact.
FOI ELGAR
LOI MACEDON
COD MOROSE
TIME 3:29
Quite difficult in NW and had to check STRETCHER in the CCD. In NW penny dropping with biffed AVID gave me CHEKHOV, then MACEDON and at last MOROSE.
Had also made heavy weather of DISCREDIT. Liked BEAT A RETREAT, RAPT, EARLDOM, NOBODY, PIEBALD and DOH.
Thanks vm, Doofers. (Despite thinking I was rather hot on religious clues, I didn’t know David wrote the psalms. Later: Oh, of course, ‘Psalm of David’)
5:42. I was a bit slow getting going with this getting only a handful of answers from a first read of the across clues but the downs got me going. LOI REELS taking a while the spot it was drums of wire. I liked the ‘tricky game’. Thanks Teazel and Doofers.
7.06
First class puzzle for me. Smooth surfaces and clues that weren’t obscure but needed thought. Quite a few nice clues -CHEKHOV and MACEDON for starters.
Thanks Teazel and Doofers
Another relatively slow one here, all on 3 clues in the top left. QUITCH tells me I performed poorly again, though not as poorly as yesterday.
I just couldn’t work out what the clue for MACEDON was asking me to do. I did see the anagrind in the end and then the other two fell, CHEKHOV first and then AVID going in last – like a few others, my knowledge of who wrote the psalms is lacking.
8:00
Another struggle – couldn’t even get started (FOI EARTH) – but finished eventually. LOI REELS, obvious as Highland dances but was so certain that they are not drums (whether verb or noun) that I refused to write it in until POI MOROSE made it inevitable. NHO STRETCHER (but had to be); thank you, Doofers, for explanation of PIEBALD. Liked clever anagram of SAHARA DESERT.
6:35
Both 1’s were the first I tried and the last I got. NHO the brick but it had to be, and that H gave me HEAVE, the answer over which I spent the longest time.
A well pitched and enjoyable QC, thanks all.
Started with MOROSE and got held up with LOI, FAST, as I’d done what several others appear to have done, and put BLUSHED at 14d. SAHARA DESERT corrected my mis-spelling of CHEKHOV. 6:54. Thanks Teazel and Doofers.
Pretty straightforward today finishing in 8.03. MACEDON was my LOI as I failed to see ‘go around’ as the anagram pointer for a while. STRETCHER went straight in as it was a very familiar word from my working past. STRETCHER defines the brick laid with longest face horizontally, and HEADER defines the brick laid with the shorter end face in evidence. Most British houses are traditionally built with Stretcher Bond only.
9:30. All went in very nicely although I had to come back to the 1s at the end. LOI 1dn MACEDON, COD 1ac MOROSE.
I thought I had more greek than I could ever want from yesterday’s 15×15, but it was good to see Homer today. DOH
Dnf…
Hmm – not sure this was that straightforward. Some quite tricky clues here, leading to me failing on 22ac “Piebald” which I should have known but somehow managed to put in as “Pieland”. 17ac “Sou” was a straightforward guess, but even 23ac “Fast” and 20dn “Heave” took some thought around the definitions.
FOI – 4ac “Oboe”
LOI – 22ac “Pieland” (incorrect)
COD – 8dn “Beat a Retreat” – cleverly constructed once I realised it wasn’t an anagram.
Thanks as usual!
13m
Found this quite tough.
Doh is not &lit, the entire clue needs to simultaneously provide both the definition and the wordplay. If H stood for Homer, then Note by Homer would qualify.
Reading 52 stories by Chekhov currently so that gets COD.
I was quite surprised when I saw this described as at the easier end of the spectrum, as I found it a bit tougher than average. Easier end of Teazel’s spectrum perhaps though. Finished with FAST in 21:57. COD to DISCREDIT, WOD PIEBALD. Thanks Teazel and Doofers.
I somehow got there, despite being completely stuck on several occasions.
Time = 34 minutes.
I can’t remember what got me started, but I know that I found the lower half of the grid significantly more challenging than the upper half and that a fair amount of guessing and retro-parsing was required to maintain progress. Then, finally, I came to S_U. I couldn’t deduce how the clue worked and I DNK the coin or the arab market, so a very, very lucky guess was required. I nearly went with SaU, but fortunately changed my mind at the end. Phew!
Thanks to Teazel and Doofers.
Took me a while to get started (and to finish, if I’m honest). Biffed BEAT A RETREAT and REELS (that sort of drum just didn’t occur to me). Didn’t know STRETCHER as brick. LOI FAST as I’d initially put blushed not BLUSHES. Liked CHEKHOV 😁 Thanks D.
13.17 Slow in the NW. I read psalmist as palmist and spent far too long thinking about fortune tellers. The nicely misdirecting MACEDON was biffed to finish. Thanks Doofers and Teazel.
Slight struggle today, I’d couldn’t get MACEDONIA to fit and was unaware of contraction
I wanted to put AGROUND for 1D – Anagram of AND GO around UR – oh well.
Also SUQ for SOU.
Neither of course properly fitted with the clue but I am used to not fully parsing as I go – hey ho.
I didn’t find this easy but it was fun.
I’m definitely an unimportant person who will criticise thin wine.
Thanks Teazel and Doofers.
Finished in 19 minutes but quite a few were biffed from the crossers (Macedon and Sahara Desert being the main ones). I spelt 9ac as Chechov but as this is a transliteration from the Cyrillic alphabet this seems to me to be just as valid as Chekhov.
FOI – 4ac OBOE
LOI – 8dn BEAT A RETREAT
COD – I liked 6dn BAGHDAD. Also BEAT A RETREAT which I only parsed after completion.
Thanks to Teazel and to Doofers
Lovely friendly puzzle today probably because as a priest I’m familiar with the psalms being “of David” & as the wife of one who trained as a bricklayer & mason “stretcher” has long been in my vocabulary. Liked “piebald” best. Thank you Teazel & Doofenschmirtz.
Delighted at 22 mins as I have only been doing these for a month but previously dabbled.
FOI oboe
LOI reels
COD piebald
🏆!
Bravo!
15 minutes
Happy with that until I came here and saw how easy many people found it. Now I’m not so sure.
Gary, it sounds like you let your worry about how other people do take the shine off your own achievements. You seem to be getting consistently faster. If you’re still enjoying the process as well that’s all that really matters surely? Well done – 15 mins sounds very quick for what was a rather tricky crossword in places. I think I took about 20 mins or so in the end. Who cares?!
Thanks fabian. Wise words that I will try to follow.
There are plenty of solvers from the 15 x 15 who do these also (I am one), and many of them consistently have times of 3 – 5 minutes. I have never done even a quick one in that time, nor would I want to, particularly. I don’t time myself, because it then becomes a race, rather than pitting your wits against the setter, and furthermore, people put in bifs and answers they haven’t checked which leads to disappointment when they’ve made a mistake through rushing. If speed is your thing, then fine – but if you get more enjoyment from getting the answers right and savouring the wordplay, then don’t bother with the stopwatch. I solve on paper, and find it much less stressful.
Your comment would be so useful for all beginners of the QC, as concerns about the time taken, to complete the latest one, seem to rob some solvers of the fun of working out the answers.
Thanks.
I’m a paper solver as well. I have no aspirations to be a speed solver. I think it’s just human nature to compare oneself to others.
If it helps, I found this difficult and would have been delighted with 15 minutes!
Thanks Wombat
As per Doofers, my FOI was OBOE and my LOI MACEDON (also missed the anagram indicator). I had to guess STRETCHER and biffed an unparsed BEAT A RETREAT. I’m very happy with my phone (urgh) solve time of 7:43.
Paired with yesterday, a perfect example of how differently puzzles hit for different solvers. A reasonably gentle ride for me at 18:32, and lots of entertainment along the way, as well as a sigh of relief after yesterday’s experience beating my head against a wall. Loved CHEKHOV for the wordplay, REELS for stretching my literalist attitude, BEAT A RETREAT for the fun of simultaneously biffing and parsing. Good old DOH, maybe it needs a little rest. Should I be mad because GaryA beat me?
Thanks to Teazel and Doof!
Great puzzle. NW was the last to fall once I had 11a Discredit. Initially thought 1a might be a palindrome. Remembered Macedon from A-level Ancient History. Stretcher was a write in. Missed the anagrams for 3d and 8d. Lots of lovely clues. Pretty 23a for me. Well satisfied!
FOI 4a Oboe
LOI 1a Morose
COD – too many to choose from!
9:43
Another here with no idea about DAVID as psalmist- indeed, I read it as palmist which had me even more mystified – luckily the definition was very clear. Finished with a breeze block not helped by entering BLUSHED rather than BLUSHES. After seeing my mistake, it still took a short while to see FAST and then LOI SCUFF.
Thanks Teazel and Doofenschmirtz
I thoroughly enjoyed this and completed it in 19 minutes ( which included going to get a second cup of tea). I learned about headers and stretchers when there was building work at my primary school. I couldn’t parse ‘beat a retreat’ and took a while to complete the NW corner (1a, 1d and 11a) with LOI ‘morose’. A good mix of traditional and modern references. Thank you Teazel and Doofers.
24 mins a proud finish as found several clues difficult, not helped by misspelling Chekhov. Try finding a desert with a K as 3rd letter.
Doof thanks for parsing many I couldn’t. Great puzzle Teazel
All I could find was the Taklamakan Desert in NW China, apparently one the world’s largest sand deserts.
Taklamaklan! What a swell word!
Baked Alaska? Oh, no, sorry, that’s a dessert.
Oops, my first post had an extra L but I double-checked and edited- should be just Taklamakan. Not quite as euphonious but still pretty good!
Completed the big crossword. Took well over an hour and needed a break at one point as I was stuck. Most solvers here wouldn’t find it excessively hard.
I dare not post under the blog for the big crossword. I’m not ready to mix it with the experts.
Bravo!
Thank you 😊
10:38
Had put SCORE for 17d, which delayed USHER and FAST.
18:28
Technically a DNF as had C instead of K in CHEKHOV. Should have known but there was no help from the wordplay. Quite a lot of biffing here, MACEDONIAN, REELS and SAHARA DESERT all looked right without being parsed. LOI MOROSE.
What a great QC! Fair, though tricky in places. I loved it.
17 min 35 sec.
Thank you, Teasel and Doofs.
Very tricky for me, and I was surprised to barely evade the SCC with 19:16. Seemed a strange mixture of difficulties today – SOU took a very long time while EARTH was barely cryptic. Perhaps it’s just me.
Thank you for the blog!
Thank you to those who did find a desert with k as the 3rd letter. Surprised I missed such a wonder, always thought geography was a strength of mine