An interesting puzzle from Hurley, with a number of less stretching clues to get one going but a few which are rather more challenging, including a medium sized city in America’s mid-west, a poet that not everyone might have heard of, a fine Triple Definition in which the third definition took me some thinking about and a fighter that turned out to be a WW2 plane rather than a boxer or any other form of combatant.
I definitely slowed towards the end of completing the puzzle, and eventually came home in 13:24 (plus a bit more to parse my LOI), which based on my normal timings makes this on the tough side. But overall a good puzzle to start Hurley’s year of contributions to our enjoyment – how did everyone else find it?
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (abc)* indicates an anagram of abc, and strike-through-text shows deletions.
| Across | |
| 1 | Clean media boss’s vehicle (5) |
| MOPED – MOP (clean) + ED (media boss).
A moped is half way between a bicycle and a motorbike, and traditionally has both a motor (the MO part of the name) and pedals (the PED part). In the UK at least, they had small engines, low top speeds and typically less stringent driving licence requirements for drivers/riders. The arrival of e-bikes has rather changed the scene though: some are genuinely like the old mopeds, but others are basically electric motorbikes, faster and more powerful than the traditional moped but without any regulations such as the need for numberplates, or for drivers the need for helmets, driving licences and insurance. |
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| 4 | Sorcha’s sister is holding frame (7) |
| CHASSIS – A hidden, in SorCHAS SISter, with the hidden indicator being “is holding”.
I looked at this clue and thought “I have no idea who or what Sorcha is …”. It is in fact, I now discover, a well-established Irish woman’s name, derived from the Old Irish soirche, meaning “brightness”, with Sorchas in the public sphere including several actresses and one Northern Irish MP. But you don’t need to know that to solve the clue. |
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| 8 | Dreadful poorness, no energy — one who might help with funds (7) |
| SPONSOR – (poorn |
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| 9 | Song starts to produce sweet and lilting melody (5) |
| PSALM – Formed from the first letters (“starts to”) Produce Sweet And Lilting Melody. And a lovely smooth surface as well. | |
| 10 | Supporting English competitor, one coming first? (10) |
| FORERUNNER – FOR (supporting) + E (English) + RUNNER (competitor). | |
| 14 | A large tree growing on mountain (6) |
| ALPINE – A L (a large) + PINE (tree). “Growing on mountain” as in Alpine plants. | |
| 15 | Be hesitant following change (6) |
| FALTER – F (following) + ALTER (change). Our third IKEA clue in a row. | |
| 17 | Meat shop to rise and rise in an unusual way (10) |
| ROTISSERIE – (to rise rise)*, the anagram indicator being “in an unusual way”.
I think of a rotisserie as a rotating spit on which meat or poultry can be roasted either above or beside a fire, but Collins gives two definitions for Rotisserie, the first being the aforementioned spit and the second being “a shop or restaurant where meat is roasted to order”. So I have learnt something new today. |
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| 20 | Welcoming Democrat, cite changed ruling (5) |
| EDICT – EICT (ie an anagram of cite, with the anagram indicator being “changed”), with D (Democrat) inserted into it, the insertion indicator being “welcoming”. | |
| 22 | Stipulation in favour of protective gear snubbed (7) |
| PROVISO – PRO (in favour of) + VISO (visor, or protective gear, with the last letter deleted, ie snubbed).
“Snubbed” as an indicator of the need to remove the last letter was new to me, and I usually think of snubbed as meaning ignored or perhaps refused, but the phrase snub-nosed (as in dog, or revolver) implying something short of full length justifies Hurley’s use of the word here. |
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| 23 | Poet Stephen, welcome shop customer? (7) |
| SPENDER – Our first DD of the puzzle. A spender, and more specifically a big spender, will be welcomed by any shopkeeper, and our poet is Sir Stephen Spender (1909-1995), who as well as receiving many honours in his native UK was also made US Poet Laureate in 1965. | |
| 24 | Musical instrument is brought over by sailor (5) |
| SITAR – SI (is reversed, ie “brought over”) + TAR (sailor).
Tar is indeed Crosswordland’s favourite word for a sailor, but until I looked it up I did not know why. It seems that before the invention of waterproofing for fabrics, seamen were known to “tar” their clothes (that is, dip them in tar) before they departed on voyages to make them more water-resistant. (Personally, I’d have thought that made them as stiff as anything and very uncomfortable, but then I’m not a 19th century seaman!). Later, this process was commercialised and the resulting waterproof cloth was given the trade name tarpaulin; it became a favourite material for sailors’ outer garments before various plastic-based fabrics took over. |
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| Down | |
| 1 | US uncle brought round hot potato dish (4) |
| MASH – MAS (SAM, ie US uncle, reversed, ie “brought round”) + H (hot).
For a relatively straightforward clue there is quite a lot going on here, with the deception that “round” often implies an inclusion, though not in this case, and the second deception that one has to lift and separate hot (part of the wordplay) from potato dish (the definition), despite the fact that mash is indeed a hot potato dish – which is how I initially biffed the answer. All that in a seven word clue. |
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| 2 | Story of novel — power and destiny (4) |
| PLOT – Another short and very elegant clue, in this case the construction being P (power) + LOT (destiny). And the combination Power and Destiny forms the leitmotif of many many novels. | |
| 3 | City one missed when abroad (3,6) |
| DES MOINES – (one missed)*, the anagram indicator being “abroad”.
Des Moines is not perhaps the best known of US cities, and in cluing it as just “City”, Hurley has not been over-generous. It is though the capital of the US state of Iowa and home to over 200,000 people, and it has its moment in the sun once every four years as Iowa holds the first contests in the US presidential primaries, and the state and its caucuses attract both national and international attention. But other than that it has a low profile and the main thing I knew about Des Moines before compiling this blog is that there is no unanimity on how many of the S’s in the name are pronounced – 2, 1 or even none of them. |
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| 4 | Awkward position where sides meet in remote area (6) |
| CORNER – A TD (Triple Definition). The first two are fairly straightforward, as one can be “backed into a corner” when put into an awkward position, and a corner is where sides (of eg a room or a rectangle) meet. The third definition is slightly less easy to see, and took me some time when parsing the clue, but one can speak of “a quiet corner of England” as a private, secret, or remote place, and there is also the expression “every corner of the globe”, which by implication includes some remote parts of the planet. | |
| 5 | Reptile featured in Aesop regularly (3) |
| ASP – Every other letter (“regularly”) of AeSoP.
An asp is a venomous snake, and a reminder that snakes are of course reptiles. Until our august setter and now crossword editor Asp joined us, the most famous asp in history was probably the one that Queen Cleopatra is said to have clasped to her bosom, allowing it to bite her and therefore kill her, though (spoiler alert) it is more likely that she took poison, that being a rather more reliable way of effecting her suicide. |
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| 6 | Agent sat around to be still (8) |
| STAGNATE – (agent sat)*, the anagram indicator being “around”. | |
| 7 | Dark, extremely retro hat (8) |
| SOMBRERO – SOMBRE (dark) + RO (first and last letters, ie “extremely”, of RetrO). | |
| 11 | In full agreement, global body surmounting hatred accepts nothing (9) |
| UNANIMOUS – UN (global body, specifically here the United Nations) + ANIMUS (hatred) with O inserted (“accepts nothing”). | |
| 12 | Impartiality, feature of blonde (8) |
| FAIRNESS – A straightforward DD. | |
| 13 | Fighter’s grudge about fee is raised at the start (8) |
| SPITFIRE – SPITE (grudge) with the inclusion of (given by “about”) F I R (first letters of Fee Is Raised, given by “at the start”).
This was my LOI, and it took a lengthy word search before the iconic WW2 fighter plane was revealed – a real PDM when I realised it was that sort of fighter. It then took even longer to work out the parsing, as spite and grudge are not IMO that close synonyms, and the rest of the wordplay stayed resolutely obscure for longer than it should have done. A very clever clue (blogger-speak for “that one nearly beat me”). |
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| 16 | Mood of agency worker here in centre (6) |
| TEMPER – TEMP (agency worker) + ER (centre two letters of hERe). | |
| 18 | Highland wear and outfit’s left inside (4) |
| KILT – KIT (outfit) with L (left) inside it. | |
| 19 | Secure space on way up (4) |
| MOOR – ROOM (space) all reversed (“on way up”), with the meaning of to moor a boat, to secure it to the quay / pontoon / buoy or whatever. A nice Lift and Separate; we are not looking for a secure or safe space. | |
| 21 | Small amount ultimately spent on publicity material (3) |
| TAD – T (“ultimately”, ie last letter of, spenT) + AD (publicity material).
Tad first appeared in the late 19th century, and originally meant “young or small child”, probably as a shortened form of tadpole. The more modern meaning of “a small amount” is first recorded in the first years of the 20th century and is by now over 100 years old, but despite its age the word remains a tad informal. |
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21:01 for the solve! Reached my last four of ROTISSERIE, UNANIMOUS, FALTER and SPITFIRE at around 12-13mins then felt the clueing was against me. On reflection, falter was easy enough but the other three were bif-then-parses. NHO Stephen Spender but gettable once I had the checkers.
Bill Bryson hails from Des Moines or thereabouts so I first learned of it from reading Notes from a Small Island which details his travels round Britain beginning in my hometown of Bournemouth where I was excited to learn he had been a reporter for our local paper, Evening Echo, as it was in the late 1970s. Not sure if his writing is to everybody’s taste but I’ve enjoyed most of his books with their wry humour about places and subjects while learning stuff along the way.
Appears my early morning start has led me to be first in the SCC. The overnight staff are doing a fine job and I’ll be getting the coffees in until I head off to parkrun!
Edit : Combined parksolve of 45:16. Barcode scanned by Paul Sinton-Hewitt 😲
So, I’ve met and chatted with Bill Bryson, but would happily trade that for PSH. Wow! Parkrun royalty indeed. Which event was that?
He came to Poole this morning. In truth, I’ve bumped into him and Jo SH a few times on my/their travels – they seem to remember me each time – so I went to his scanning station just to say “Hello”. No need for a selfie!!
Tell me about when you met Bill? Was he as engaging as his books suggest?
BB was ambassador for a charity fundraising event. This was around 20 years ago. My team raised the most sponsorship so he presented a trophy and we got chatting. Amiable enough but came across as rather shy. Of course, he might have been tired.
Wouldn’t surprise me – his books read like someone observing and thinking about what is going on around him – bit of an introvert
Seeing the answers, this should not have been that hard, but I didn’t do very well. How could I miss a sitter like falter? And I needed all the crossers for moped, and likewise for forerunner. But for some reason, I saw the city in Iowa right away….hmmm.
Time: 10:56
Thanks Cedric. A nice QC, and fairly quick for me at 16m. I thought the triple definition for CORNER was a touch unnecessary and made it inelegant. The first two would have done.
12 minutes with a minor delay over ROTISSERIE as I queried the definition, and a longer one over the NHO for forgotten DES MOINES where I needed all he checkers before deciding on the most likely placement of the remaining anagrist.
Mostly straight forward until utterly breeze blocked at 21 minutes by our LOI 15a. After several minutes of alpha trawling and thesaurus rummages decided to check the grid and realised that stagnant is not an anagram of stagnate!! Once corrected falter was obvious, Grrr. Must double check the anagrist.
On reading Sorcha, immediately thought of Tina’s maxim, if it doesn’t make sense look for a hidden .
Thanks Hurley, and Cedric for the, as usual, very comprehensive blog
I found this fairly gentle.
Like New Driver, I knew DES MOINES mainly via Bill Bryson and like Roundabout Here, a careless ‘stagnant’ made LOI FALTER somewhat challenging. Fortunately the two unknowns – SPENDER and ROTISSERIE – were fairly straightforward once a few checkers were in place..
Finished in 6.03.
Thanks to Cedric
For anyone fancying a challenge, might I recommend yesterday’s Guardian 15×15 set by Paul (known to us here as QC setter Mara)? It’s a spectacular puzzle with a ‘pig’ theme – not giving anything away as ‘pig’ and related matters appear in about a dozen clues. Great fun! I’m sure our friend Oink would appreciate it. Or perhaps the so-far unidentified Oink and Mara are one and the same?
Thanks, I needed another puzzle to attack and hadn’t thought of the Guardian.
I hope you enjoy it. Let me know by other means if you wish to discuss but the blog is available on Fifteensquared.
Enjoyed this nice puzzle from Hurley all done in 7:51 so a good personal NITCH today for me and that was after spending a good couple of minutes staring at LOI SPITFIRE.
Thanks for detailed blog Cedric particularly for UNANIMOUS which was the only one I didn’t parse in real time.
Cheers
Horners
Also knew Des Moines from Bill Bryson and still don’t know how to pronounce it. Slowed down by writing STAGNANT in too quickly without working out the anagram. 8A not helped by my reading of the second word as POOMESS which does make sense as a word but think I need to go to the opticians. Thanks Hurley, and Cedric for great informative blog.
“Bear reportedly does it in dining area?” (7)
20 mins…
A good puzzle with a few tricky clues. Like most people above, I knew of Des Moines via Bill Bryson, but I hadn’t heard of the poet or that Rotisserie could actually be a shop. I parsed 13dn “Spitfire” as “Spit Ire” around the “f” for fee, which upon reflection doesn’t really make that much sense.
FOI – 1dn “Mash”
LOI – 15ac “Falter”
COD – 22ac “Proviso” – purely for the use of “snubbed”
Thanks as usual!
Knew DES MOINES from the provenance of Celeste Holm’s character in ‘High Society’. It just stuck with me. Like one or two others, spent the last couple of minutes or so wrestling with the fighter, before SPITFIRE materialised. Cunning clue, indeed. 8:58
33 minutes but put soar, not moor.
Started off really well but then slowed right down with NE corner being last in.
Had heard of Des Moines but only got it from checkers as was not aware of abroad as anagram indicator. NHO Spender as a poet, to my shame.
There were a few I had difficulty in parsing. Your excellent blog was very helpful, Cedric. Also thanks to Hurley for an enjoyable QC.
I thought this was a nice puzzle, i finished in 11:38, a little slow for me, but with a typo in PSALM, which was annoying. At first I assumed I had CORNER wrong, which I had originally biffed, but after fixing the typo I twigged the triple definition (have these, or at least > 2-tple definitions, got more popular recently? It feels like they have) before checking the blog.
Like a few others, I was aware of Des Moines because of having read a few Bill Bryson books back in the day.
MASH and PLOT were first 2 in. DES MOINES appeared in a puzzle elswhere quite recently, so didn’t take long to spot. CORNER delayed me as I was trying to fit RL into a word for a remote area. The SW held me up at the end, with ROTISSERIE and SPITFIRE last 2 in. 10:57. Thanks Hurley and Cedric.
DNF
Another STAGNANT made FALTER impossible, with the ER matching “hesitant” I was on the wrong path anyway. Fluked CORNER because not much fitted. I spent ages looking for words with RL in the middle for “where sides meet”. CURLED might have worked on another day if the clue was different.
Slow on PROVISO/MOOR as well. COD MOPED.
14:14. SPITFIRE was the main holdup. I’ve always heard DES MOINES pronounced “Deh-moyn”, no esses- I guess that’s non- sigmic speech. Fantasy sports leagues in North America are often called Rotisserie leagues, supposedly named from a New York City restaurant where a group in the 1980’s hung out.
9:26
Luckily I had heard of Des Moines from the works of Bill Bryson. SPITFIRE needed all the checkers to move me away from thinking of names of boxers. NHO ROTISSERIE meaning a shop, but it seemed plausible.
Thanks Cedric and Hurley
DNF. Mostly gettable if tough but I take issue with Des Moines, which I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect most people in the UK to know, so leads to a shoulder shrug and wishing I’d wasted less time trying to solve
Well well, it seems this blog has become the “yes I too knew Bill Bryson hailed from Des Moines” society. I feel quite left out that I didn’t! But still no agreement on how many of the Ss are pronounced.
I used to work for a US Corp based in what we called Minnehopeless and visited Des Moines a few times – no S pronounced anywhere.
Whenever I see the name of the Iowa state capital, my first thought is: ‘I come from Des Moines. Somebody had to.’ In fact, it’s my only thought regarding the city – I know nothing else about it 😂 It’s certainly appeared in the crosswords before – perhaps it’s particularly good for checkers or anagrams.
25:13
Flew through the easy ones, thinking a good time was on the cards then ground to a halt with a full 10 mins teasing out the SW corner, FAIRNESS, SPITFIRE and ROTISSERIE. The final obstacle was LOI CORNER where I failed to parse the remote area bit.
Parksolve a glacial 58 minutes but gosh, it was beautiful out there with the frosted grass sparkling in the sunshine.
A really first class blog by Cedric BTW.
I had no problems with this, other than taking too long to spot CHASSIS. I had a feeling I’d encountered DES MOINES in another recent puzzle, but it went straight in anyway.
FOI MOPED
LOI CORNER
COD PROVISO
TIME 4:08
Felt fairly gentle although a couple of brief hold-ups solving SPENDER and FAIRNESS 🙄 Everything else went in easily today. Knew DES MOINES, although not the BB connection. Many thanks for the blog.
My Mum got her copy of ‘Notes from a small Island’ signed by him, and thanked him for being complimentary about our home town of Retford (Nottinghamshire).
Regrettably failed the SPITFIRE test at the very end- obvious when explained!
Cold but beautiful walk today followed by less lovely dip into Saino’s.
Very fast but then stuck at 13d. Finally looked up Fighter in the CCD – no luck but as soon as I noted ‘see also aeroplane’ the penny dropped. Parsing very obscure.
Was it Snoopy who piloted a SPITFIRE? Or maybe it was a Sopwith Camel. Biggles flew a Spitfire anyway.
Knew SPENDER and DES MOINES.
Thanks for helpful blog, Cedric.
You baffled me with Saino’s – never heard it called that before and had to look it up 😂😂
Sorry, slang again🙂
No need to apologise – just new to me!
From an earlier war, my father flew a Sopwith Camel, until he was shot down. One of the few who managed to survive, remarkably. Although I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t.
Very brave indeed.
19.04 My time was doubled by FALTER (blocked by a careless STAGNANT) and LOI SPITFIRE. Thanks Cedric and Hurley.
P.S. The law hasn’t changed. It is being ignored. Electric motorbikes ought to be registered, insured, ridden by a licensed rider with a helmet, etc. just like petrol-powered motorbikes.
07:28 for a Goodish Day. Thanks for unpicking the triple def, Cedders, it fooled me!
7:53
Nothing too scary here – I had to think not twice, but three times (BUTCHER, CHARCUTERIE….) before coming up with ROTISSERIE. SPITFIRE and DES MOINES both fell into place in their turn, but CORNER held me up the longest – needed all three checkers and still didn’t see the triple definition before coming here, TDs are a bit of a blind spot for me, it seems.
Thanks Cedric for the blog, and Hurley for the puzzle
Another one who shot himself in the foot with a careless STAGNANT thus concealing FALTER; sussed it in the end.
Knew of Des Moines but didn’t associate it with BB, all rest went in without too much stress for a steady 27 mins. Contented coney.
The last couple of days have been more miss than hit, but I finished today in 13:23. It wasn’t looking too hopeful at one point, so I think I was quite lucky. I didn’t fully parse CORNER or SPITFIRE, the hidden at 4a (CHASSIS) held me up and yet it couldn’t really have been clearer, and it took me longer than necessary to realise that I needed all five initials for PSALM, and not just the P and the S – that happens surprisingly often 😅 I also thought the surface at 8a (SPONSOR) was quite clunky. But overall I thought it was an enjoyable solve, with ticks next to ALPINE and FALTER.
We studied Spender’s poems for O level, so no problems there. I was surprised to see the same word in both the quickie and the biggie. Why do the editors let this happen?
FOI Mash LOI Spitfire
Thanks Hurley and Cedric
DNF and not very happy. I spent 15 minutes or so at the end unsuccessfully alphabet trawling for 15a. I discounted FALTER as I couldn’t accept F for ‘following’. To me, it was a ridiculous abbreviation (or a r a). I wondered whether WAITER might work (waiting for hesitating), but eventually threw in the towel.
Prior to that, I could not parse CORNER and don’t accept our blogger’s third definition (Sorry, Cedric!), and I had NHO the poet (SPENDER) or ANIMUS. I did, however, enjoy MOPED, as I had visions of a brown-coated janitor suddenly appearing on the set of Have I Got News For You and proceeding to give Ian Hislop a wash and brush up with a damp mop. Ridiculous, I know, but it appealed to me.
Many thanks to Cedric and Hurley.
F for “following” was also new to me, and I likewise DNF. Also failed to get CORNER and SPITFIRE, so a fairly wretched performance all in all.
Thank you to Cedric for a very comprehensive blog!
I agree that the third definition of corner does not work as you need another word – far corner; quiet corner etc. It would have been a really elegant clue without the remote area.
10.22. Took me a while to get going.
Dear fellow solvers – where is this published? I couldn’t find it in my online version of the paper, am I missing something?
Although the Saturday QC is not in the printed paper, it is in the online paper, under the puzzles section, so I am slightly surprised you cannot find it. If you have access to the online paper, you should still be able to find it by going to the past editions tab. Try https://www.thetimes.com/past-six-days/2025-01-11/puzzles
Thanks for the reply Cedric – your slight surprise made me go back and have a look to see if my eyes were indeed failing me. Nope – couldn’t see it on any of the Mind Games pages in the Review (p44-47) – just the codeword, times2 and of course the jumbo. Thanks too for the link, much appreciated. No biggie that I couldnt’t find it though – I tend to stick the main daily main puzzle, and the saturday jumbo and o tempora….but the simpler one I use with the children.