I found this one a pretty stiff challenge. I just dodged the SCC, coming in at 19:10, over my target of 15 minutes. The first two acrosses came very quickly, but then I only got two more of the acrosses on the first pass through. Unusually, not a single clue was a straight anagram today.
My COD award goes to RUSTY.
Definitions underlined, synonyms in round brackets, wordplay in square brackets and deletions in strikethrough. Anagram indicators italicised in the clue, anagram fodder indicated like (this)*.
Across | |
1 | Flat-bottomed boat not so heavy (7) |
LIGHTER – A double definition to get us started. | |
5 | Anaesthetic in patella colonel recalled (5) |
LOCAL – Hidden in patelLA COLonel when reversed [recalled]. | |
8 | Exotic mineral found by steadfast traveller out of this world (4,9) |
NEIL ARMSTRONG – (mineral)* + STRONG (steadfast). | |
9 | Kentish chap grabs minute portion (7) |
SEGMENT – SE GENT including M for minute.
Kent is in the south-east of England, so a Kentish chap is a SE gent. For ages I wondered whether I was supposed to know a particular word people from Kent use to describe themselves. |
|
10 | German agreed to track port and Spanish wine (5) |
RIOJA – JA (German agreed) follows RIO (a port).
If you track someone, you go after them, so I quite like “to track” here meaning “to follow”. Rio is by far the most frequented port in Crosswordland. |
|
11 | Composer and Charlie enter vehicle? (6) |
CHOPIN – C (Charlie in the NATO alphabet) + HOP IN (enter vehicle). | |
13 | Individual keeps tree burning (2,4) |
ON FIRE – ONE (individual) contains [keeps] FIR (tree). | |
15 | Heather in charge during long period (5) |
ERICA – IC for in charge inside ERA (long period).
Erica is the genus of “roughly 857” (Wikipedia) species of plants, commonly known as “heather”. The other word you’ll sometimes see for heather is “ling”. And of course that was the one that came to mind for me first. |
|
16 | Disregard false leg caught in fishing gear (7) |
NEGLECT – (leg)* + C (caught, from cricket) in NET (fishing gear). | |
19 | African landmark old monarch declines (8,5) |
VICTORIA FALLS – VICTORIA is the old monarch + FALLS (declines). | |
20 | Rugby star, missing half year, out of practice (5) |
RUSTY – RU (Rugby Union, one of the two codes of the game of rugby) + ST Very deceptive punctuation from Breadman here. |
|
21 | Slippery creature among salespeople lying about earring (7) |
SLEEPER – EEL (slippery creature) in REPS (sales people) all reversed [about]. |
Down | |
1 | Golf course with large signs in US (5) |
LINKS – L for Large + INKS (signs in US).
That’s “signs” as a verb, as in “to ink the deal”. My dictionary marks this usage as “chiefly N. Amer”. |
|
2 | Attending pastry chefs regularly failing to cope (5,2,6) |
GOING TO PIECES – GOING TO (attending) + PIE (pastry) + every other letter [regularly] of C “Will you be going to the meeting?” is synonymous with “Will you be attending the meeting?” |
|
3 | Comb back of mullet with simplicity (5) |
TEASE – Last letter [back of] |
|
4 | TV accessory’s key test probing centre of screen (6) |
REMOTE – E (a key, from music) + MOT (a test) inside MOT stood for the Ministry of Transport, and the MOT test was an annual check of a vehicle’s roadworthiness. |
|
5 | Former Republican working afterwards (5,2) |
LATER ON – LATE (former) + R for republican + ON (working). | |
6 | Line of people cold, on edge, wanting electrical device (9,4) |
CROCODILE CLIP – CROCODILE (line of people) + C for cold + LIP (edge).
I think “crocodile” in the sense of a line of people is most often applied to small children being supervised by teachers. |
|
7 | Heave into narrow sled: suitcases, holdalls, etc (7) |
LUGGAGE – GAG (heave, as in to vomit) inside LUGE (narrow sled).
I just spent 10 minutes trying to justify how this was LUG for heave + GAGE. Fortunately, for once I paid attention to the little voice that says “you’re about to make a complete numpty of yourself”. |
|
11 | Chopper used for taking holiday in Cromer’s outskirts (7) |
CLEAVER – LEAVE (holiday) in the first and last letter [outskirts] of C |
|
12 | In motor racing, a burst’s overcome initially, acting all together (2,1,4) |
IN A BODY – First letters [initially] of A B The racing is more commonly referred to as “Indycar racing”. |
|
14 | Heard enjoyable rock (6) |
GNEISS – Sounds like [heard] “nice” (enjoyable).
And today I learned how this word is pronounced. Not sure I’ve ever actually heard it said. |
|
17 | Georgia — fine, feminine English bloomer (5) |
GAFFE – GA (abbreviation for the US state of Georgia) + F for fine + F for feminine + E for English. | |
18 | Shocking weapon seaman hides somewhere peripherally (5) |
TASER – TAR (seaman) including [hides] S |
Found this mostly fine, able to do a lot of biff-then-parsing, until I DNFed with 6d, 9a and 21a missing. Of those, I thought of SEGMENT but couldn’t justify it (never considered SE GENT!), and I tried putting EEL into 21a, but missed the reversal. I’ve NHO CROCODILE as a line of people either.
There were a good few crossword classics in this one though, like ERICA, TAR, RIO, etc.
Really nice crossword. I did it in 9.15 which felt quick on the day, considering how much NEIL ARMSTRONG, GOING TO PIECES and IN A BODY (LOI) held me up. I saw Indy post-solve, thinking the IN part had been given to us and DY was some unknown ref to motor racing in between which was bunged ABO. The croc clip clue also took a while, I’d forgotten that term for a line of kids and thought the ‘cold edge’ part was at the top. But all good in the end, thanks to Breadman and the Doof.
There were a few write-ins, but this one was mostly tough going. I knew the UK meaning of crocodile all right, but the clip part was tough – here in the US, of course, we use alligator clips. I didn’t know the earring meaning of sleep either, but the cryptic was useful. I was left with _ N_I_S…..well, that’s gneiss!
Time: 14:15
Another DNF, was never going to get GNEISS, just about unguessable if you’ve not heard of it. I knew igneous but couldn’t get it to fit.
Some other challenging ones like IN A BODY, a phrase I don’t think I’ve heard. “As a body”, maybe. Was able to build it up after seeing INDY.
ERICA and SLEEPER were not known either.
Liked SEGMENT.
heath=erica=ling: remember these, as they’ll definitely show up one way or another.
I started with AS A BODY, too.
DNK SLEEPER.
I put kNEISS instead of GNEISS for my guess at the word id never heard of but had a silent leter at the start and meant a rock. If id thought a little harder i think id have realised G fitted better
Hello Merlin,
Have you read any of Peter May’s Lewis trilogy (The Black House, The Lewis Man and The Chessmen)? He refers to the GNEISS of the Hebrides fairly often and I think his books are the only place I have seen the word. They’re also an excellent read, btw.
10:08
NHO ERICA for heather, nor SLEEPER for earring, but both easy enough from the wordplay, with checkers
Didn’t parse LOI IN A BODY until after submitting.
Ta setter and blogger
10 minutes.
I wondered about ‘wanting’ in 6dn and concluded it serves no purpose as to wordplay or definition so it must be a link word put in to enhance the surface reading. But as such links go it seems a bit excessive to me.
Collins has IN A BODY as American which would account for it being unfamiliar to me as a lexical term. I thought the English equivalent might be AS A BODY but Collins doesn’t have that at all. Anyway it didn’t matter as the answer came readily enough as the only motor racing things I recognise in crossword clues are INDY and TT.
I happened to know GNEISS but I thought when solving that it would be tough on those who don’t.
[Note: whilst I was preparing this I see that Merlin has posted the same about ‘as a body’]
Since a crocodile clip is not really an electrical device, I assumed “wanting” was part of the definition: without an electrical device to test, the clip serves no purpose.
Ah, that makes sense. Many thanks!
I was going really well.. Sitting at about 15 min which is scc but, you know, I was figuring it out…
Look I’ve never seen the word GNEISS. I have never heard that word. So that’s already two strikes against me for this clue. An alphabet trawl got me absolutely nowhere. I revealed a letter at a time and was stymied right til the end
I really liked RUSTY too. Totally tricked by the punctuation!
It’s a shame you’re not a regular Tina 😉 you’d have seen GNEISS when Orpheus gave us “Some champagne is suitable for hard rock (6)” in June 2023
Ohhhh that’s a much gentler clue….
I don’t think I’ll forget it now though
But why do you have to rely on previous answers to crosswords to give you the possibility of solving a quick cryptic? Half the point of a Quick Cryptic is an intro to cryptic crosswords, the other half is to generate an “ahhh” when you see the answer. This fails both tests and is therefore an inappropriate and unsatisfying clue (IMHO)
Not sure why you’re directing that question to me but I’d have say much of crosswording is built on what you’ve learned from previous puzzles.
Before I started doing cryptics, I didn’t know TAR=sailor, f=fine, a lighter is a type of boat, erica=heather, IC=in charge, SE=Kentish, R=Republican .
In fact, I didn’t know F=feminine as an abbreviation today but I figured out GAFFE.
Yes, the QC is a kinder, gentler crossword, but there is definitely a learning process for them – not just out-of-the-way vocabulary items, but a whole coding system to help decipher clues.
I totally agree. I am a beginner and buy The Times partly for the Quick Cryptic. I understood that the ones earlier in the week are supposed to be easier. Not the case this week. Rather than get demoralised by finding I’m at a loss to even get started, I now turn to this blog to see what others say.
Hi Julie – for what it’s worth, there’s never been a hard and fast rule that those earlier in the week are easier – particularly on the QC. That said, Friday puzzles often tended to be tough.
I’d say any sense of progressive difficulty over the course of a week has now gone out the window. I’m usually finding myself struggling on Mondays and Tuesdays moreso than later in the week.
I started three years ago (Dec 2nd 2021) and I often found myself demoralised by how difficult some of the QCs can be – so I empathise with your situation. My only advice would be to take note of the setters who you find you get along with and the ones you don’t and expect accordingly. For me, Trelawney and Jimmy are two of the setters I usually find easy.
Knew that geography degree would come in handy one day. No bother with GNEISS but I struggled with IN A BODY where I spotted it would fit but couldn’t persuade myself it meant “acting all together”. I only know Indycar racing from when Nigel Mansell left F1 as world champion and then won that too – I was miles off shortening to Indy. Not that it matters I enter GOIuG TO PIECES an odd typo where I’ve missed my intended key by the entirity of J. A typo spoiled 16.08. Good one.
Got off to a quick start and going steadily on the Breadman wavelength until left with the two NHO minerals/rocks. Except one was an astronaut which finally fell on trying the e between the n and a. Like Tina, revealed a letter at a time to find gneiss.
Those last 2 probably took 10 of our 27.12 DNF
Thanks Breadman and Doofers
Middle of the road solve for me but GNEISS and CROCODILE CLIP had to be dredged from the depths of my GCSE (school exams for non-UK solvers) knowledge. NHO of the earring but the wordplay was clear.
Crossed the line in 7.36 with LOI IN A BODY but with a DPS for putting an extra ‘c’ and no ‘d’ into crocodile.
Thanks to Doofers
16 minutes. Felt as though it should have been quicker. Most of the ones needing more time have been mentioned above, with my last in being VICTORIA FALLS, having lazily bunged in CROCODILE FILE initially for the crossing 6d. Favourite was the parsing for LUGGAGE; I fell into the same trap as our blogger.
If there’s any of Breadman’s grid trickery going on here today, I haven’t been able to spot it.
Thanks to Doofers and Breadman
Inks in a body? Nice? I don’t think so. Ive hopped in the SCC with Erica who’s charging her taser with them crocodile clips.
Ho ho!
👍
I thought this was going to be an absolute breeze until GNEISS and CROCODILE CLIP stopped me in my tracks for a DNF. Can pathetically claim that, as a German speaker, I wouldn’t automatically think of ‘nice’ as a homophone, but that’s no excuse as we’re talking about English. As for the clip, no excuse, could have dredged it up from physics class 20 years ago but didn’t.
As a German speaker I’m surprised you didn’t get GNEISS. It’s a German word!
Forgot to say that the MOT is still very much in existence despite the demise many years ago of the government department it was named after.
I was going to comment the same! Not sure why someone used the past tense for MOT!
GNEISS is tough for a Quickie, but my main reservation is with IN A BODY. Is it actually a phrase? Never knowingly heard or used it.
10 minutes. This has been a brutal week for those entering the cruciverbal lists, for sure.
agreed. not a phrase!
Yes, people do say IN A BODY, sometimes.
I take the same view on IN A BODY, but as mentioned in my early comment it’s in Collins online as an American expression.
It is in Wiktionary, too. As a body isn’t, though.
I haven’t found any dictionaries that list ‘as a body’ but after a very quick google I was interested to note that thesaurus.com has it as an entry and lists 49 synonyms for it, suggesting it is an expression people use commonly.
Agreed. GNEISS was not so much a NHO as “why on earth might have I heard of it?”. And I’m sure I’ve used that phrase “AS A BODY” but NHO IN A BODY. 1d was assumed LINKS and I’m glad for the blog to discover a NHO Americanism. 3 NHO in the same QC?
Hi, check your emails please.
Very fast today with lots of successful biffs which sprang to mind straight away like NEIL ARMSTRONG….but then I stuck at GNEISS. After an alphabet trawl, I biffed Kneiss – gnearly right.
Liked VICTORIA FALLS, CHOPIN, CROCODILE CLIP, GAFFE, among others.
Not all properly parsed so thanks, Doofers.
Never heard of the expression “in a body” meaning to act together. Surely it’s “as a body?”
8.56 and all green for me. Enjoyable puzzle. Felt a lot sharper today probably from having done 3 hours of real work ahead of sitting down to enjoy a second coffee and the puzzle. Also changed my mouse settings to slow the cursor down a bit #marginalgains.
FOI was LINKS.
LOI was CROCODILE CLIP
DNL (Did not like): IN A BODY
COD: Lots of contenders but I’ll go with POI SLEEPER which I had heard of – I think its a stud that one puts in piercing to prevent the hole from closing over in freshly pierced ears.
Thanks Doofers and Breadman.
Re SLEEPER. As far as I remember, when you have your ears pierced, you have to wear SLEEPERs (small rings) at night for a few weeks to stop the hole healing over and closing up again.
Oh, sorry, double posting.
Crikey! And here’s me thinking that SLEEPERs are what rails are laid on up and down the country.
7:18. Another held up by the unknown IN A BODY. Only CHOPIN saved me from an unparsed AS A BODY. LOI TEASE. A bit trickier than a usual Breadman puzzle taking me nearly 2 minutes over my average time. COD to RUSTY. Thanks Breadman and Doofers.
I’ve lived in Kent all of my like and am proud to be an SE gent!
Are you a Kentish Man or a Man of Kent?
After a complete disaster yesterday – DNF after 20 minutes but more importantly after 6 hours in A&E with a close friend who had a bad fall – I did rather better today with a 12 minute biff fest. Obviously I am more a morning (and a not-in-hospital) person.
Did not parse LUGGAGE (went up the same garden path as Doofers) or more embarrassingly TASER, but in both cases the checkers made the answer clear. Agree with others that IN A BODY is not a phrase one sees much in real life. COD to NEIL ARMSTRONG, which I was pretty pleased to get.
Many thanks Doofers for the blog
Cedric
29:28 for the solve! Third day in a row which felt like it’s a puzzle for biffers rather than those of who come at cryptics from the wordplay end. Not much slower in the end than yesterday’s 15×15. LINKS/SLEEPER and less obvious synonyms to me but probably write-ins for the experts. Nowhere near a pangram from Breadman today but I just don’t seem to get on with his style.
GNEISS appeared about 18months ago and I managed to dig up from memory. IN-A-BODY (which doesn’t feel like a legitimate phrase) held me up for last 5mins until I figured out the -ABO- part. Enjoyed seeing Neil Armstrong’s name come up.
Any archaeologist will tell you that it’s GNEISS work if you can get it….but I made HARD work of the puzzle and missed my target. I couldn’t see CHOPIN for ages as I’d biffed “as a body” (I see I was not alone), but my LOI/COD made it all worthwhile.
FOI LIGHTER
LOI/COD NEIL ARMSTRONG
TIME 6:18
Hi, check your emails pls.
13:32
I had also biffed AS A BODY. The search for a composer C-O-A- held me up, until I saw it had to be CHOPIN, and changed AS to IN. I still didn’t see the INDY=motor racing until coming here.
Thanks Doofers and Breadman
It was nice to finish under target at 9.33 for the first time this week. I suspect GNEISS will catch quite a few out, and I only had a distant memory of seeing it crop up before, but I guess it must have lodged in the memory bank somehow. The only one I didn’t parse was IN A BODY, and for this reason I spent a while looking for an alternative. It’s not a phrase I’ve heard before, and I’m not surprised to be told it’s an American term.
Also tried to make IN A BODY fit. Biffed LINKS, and brain very slow today to see how REMOTE worked. Eventually parsed GOING TO PIECES. I was also looking for Breadman’s trademark pangram. Good QC. Thanks Doofers and Breadman.
What is a crocodile clip?
Collins: “a clasp with serrated interlocking edges used for making electrical connections”. If you Google it you’ll see they look a bit like a crocodile, if you use your imagination.
And I’m guessing if you accidentally snap it onto your finger it will give you a fair old nip.
Clickety click all the way to 05:39 and a nosebleed on the leaderboard. Blimey. An Excellent Day.
Many thanks Breaders and El Doof. COD to SEGMENT, being an SE Gent myself.
Dropped by to say congrats on the best WITCH of the day so far at 58!
Some days the lettuce eats the rabbit
I make it 0.89 Phils – excellent showing!
No way! I’d missed your posted time. A sub-Phil!! I think that’s the first ever, and I have a strong suspicion that it will be the last. I can die happy now.
A Man of Kent or a Kentish Man?
Well I’m only a recent immigrant to Kent … but Kentish Man
“Men of Kent and Kentish Men: Kent is traditionally divided into East Kent and West Kent and such a division can be traced back at least as far as the Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Kent. Those from the East are known as Men of Kent (or Maids of Kent) and those from the West as Kentish Men (or Kentish Maids).”
People on this site may be interested in this. It has been explained to me more than once and I always forget which is which.
Thanks, David. It has come up here before but not for some time so it’s useful to have a reminder. I think the dividing line is the River Medway.
To borrow one of your phrases: SCORCHIO 🔥🔥🔥
Thank you! It won’t happen again
Zowie!
Innit!
Did not know GNEISS, did not like IN A BODY, did not see CROCODILE CLIP. Not my best day.
DNF
Forgot gneiss.
In a body??
Thanks, D.
Quite tough with a few biffs and pulled the plug at 40m with CROCODILE CLIP unsolved despite having all the crossers. I always thought it was a stationery item so that’s another bit of GK from the QC.
As an amateur geologist I was pleased to get GNEISS after a bit of thought.
Thanks Breadman and Doofers.
You never quite know what you are going to get from Breadman. This was on the harder side.
I was delayed at the end parsing IN A BODY; got there in the end.
And LOI GNEISS involved some thought and remembering a word I have learnt from crosswords- must have been a few years ago now, but definitely seen before-and not learnt at school.
A good and enjoyable test this. COD to NEIL ARMSTRONG.
15 minutes in all.
David
No accurate time, but about 15 minutes. It took me a long time to parse ‘In a body’, mainly because I had mistyped ‘Rusty’ but also because ‘Indy’ didn’t spring to mind.
Enjoyed this. Clues were not too hard. Found it much easier than past couple of days. Helped that I got the first two across clues straight away. Seemed like a proper QC.
Took 26mins.
Thanks to setter and for blog.
Seven to the bad. Comforting to hear it rated “stiff” by the experts; thank you. Knew ling but NHO ERICA. NHO SLEEPER (but Mrs M has), NHO IN A BODY, NHO sign = INK, NHO comb = TEASE, NHO heave = GAG, NHO INDY, NHO GNEISS. Far from eligible for this game!
2d Going To Pieces, COD.
POI 6d Crocodile Clip. Never thought of the electrical ones, just the ones that hold the papers onto the clipboard, etc.
12d In A Body. BIFD, never thought of “the brickyard”, Indy, Indianapolis 500, and all the other races in the IndyCar series.
POI 14d Gneiss, remembered from O-level Geog in mid 60s. Knew the spelling was a bit odd, but with checkers couldn’t go wrong. I’ve forgotten what it looks like!
DNF
Not gneiss. The Brits, myself included, seem to have reacted as a body to IN A BODY. No problem with the clips: they’re on the end of my jump leads.
Thanks all.
Nine including three bifs that I later decoded.
I only parse the clues twice. ADHD I guess.
13 mins…
I thought this was a good QC and gneissly pitched. Only thing that had me puzzled slightly, even though it was my first one in, was the US “inking” expression. Maybe I was too focused on thinking about signs giving information rather than putting down one’s signature.
FOI – 1dn “Links”
LOI – 12dn “In a body”
COD – 17dn “Gaffe”
Thanks as usual!
A slow plod around the grid, only to be ultimately thwarted by the never (knowingly) heard of Gneiss. An outstanding GR winner, though I hesitate to say the book is closed for the rest of the year. Invariant
For me this was an ideal challenge as I managed to finish but it took quite a bit if working out, preferable to a quick write-in or a DNF.
After around 11 minutes I was left with just 3 clues: 8ac, 3dn and 12dn. I gave up after a further 13 minutes with just one of those solved (3dn). Had to use aids to crack the other two. I fell into the same trap as Doofers with 7 dn and spent some time thinking that this must be wrong and leading to my problem with 8ac.
FOI – 1ac LIGHTER
LOI – DNF
COD – 6dn CROCODILE CLIP
Thanks to Breadman and Doofers
I found this reasonably straightforward today finishing in 8:50. I knew GNEISS but not IN A BODY which I assumed must be another abomination from across the pond to follow Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Had to do an alphabet trawl for LOI IN A BODY and then not wholly convinced. Knew GNEISS. Went down all sorts of rabbit holes before I finally saw CROCODILE CLIP. Never did parse LUGGAGE properly – thanks D. Quite tricky in places but much to enjoy, not least RUSTY. Many thanks D and Breadman.
12:44 with the last 3 minutes spent puzzling over 14d before the lightbulb finally went on.
5:16
Excellent first pass of acrosses which made the downs very easy. Mopping up at the end, needed CHOPIN to decide between IN or AT for 12d which I failed to parse, so thanks for that Doofers.
Thanks also to Breadman
11:58 Both IN or AS A BODY sound somewhat green paintish to me. I didn’t know GNEISS could be formed from granite.
Couldn’t finish. I was never going to get GNEISS and I didn’t parse IN A BODY.
Another quickish start, followed by a slow finish, but no less enjoyable for all that. There were quite a few ticks and smiles for the lovely surfaces today, especially NEIL ARMSTRONG, CHOPIN, RUSTY and CLEAVER. I had a vision of all the aristos / royal family taking their helicopters up to North Norfolk for their holidays. We just slog along the A47! Not sure how many of them would go to Cromer though 😂
My COD got a big smile as I imagined Paul’s face if he pulled a false leg out of some lovely river, especially if he though Bob was playing tricks!*
I didn’t like IN A BODY either, but GNEISS was ok. I’ve seen it here before and was delighted to recognise it in an episode of Digging for Britain the other day.
12:42 FOI Lighter LOI Gneiss COD Neglect
Thanks Breadman and Doofers
*For those of you who don’t understand my reference: there is a TV programme called Gone Fishing, which features two very well-known comedians called Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer doing exactly that – just fishing while chuntering about stuff. It’s delightful, and a very unlikely success!