Good morning, and we have a puzzle from Shay today, who is I believe a new setter, at least for the QC. Certainly I cannot find a previous QC from him or her. And, much as I have found with some other recent new setters like Cheeko, Asp or Bjorn, I have clearly not yet calibrated my solving to their wavelength, as this took me 18:05, much longer than my par solve.
It might have been even longer still if I had not had my anagram hat on – there are no less than 7 to amuse us – but even so I found the puzzle quite tough, as my time suggests. I think it was genuinely mostly my unfamiliarity with Shay’s style, as on reflection the clues are all fair, the wordplays in the main use familiar methods and none of the answers is obscure, but there are certainly some clues with multiple moving parts that could I suspect stretch some QC solvers’ experience. How did everyone else get on?
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (abc)* indicates an anagram of abc, and strike-through-text shows deletions.
| Across | |
| 1 | Girl abruptly turned, fibbed and rushed out (7) |
| SALLIED – SAL (lass, ie girl, with the last letter removed, indicated by “abruptly”, and then the remaining letters reversed, given by “turned”) + LIED (fibbed). Sallied as in “sallied forth”, indeed I am not sure one ever encounters sally with this meaning without its appendage of forth.
A complicated clue to start, with the first component requiring us to find a synonym (lass for girl) and then two actions (truncation and reversing). Ironically if the new injunction against random girl’s names was not in place, the clue could just have read “Girl fibbed and rushed out” using Sal as the name of a girl, which as well as being shorter and less challenging, would arguably have been neater as well. |
|
| 5 | Poem about moon (4) |
| MOPE – (poem)*, with the anagram indicator being “about” – which for once does not imply a reversal.
These days, as well as the classical meaning of the satellite of a planet, mooning has for some reason taken on the meaning of that odd sport of revealing one’s buttocks in public, but it does still have the meaning of moping / mooching about listlessly too, which is what we need here. |
|
| 7 | Regularly visited Bangkok in the past (3) |
| AGO – Even letters (“regularly visited”) of BAnGkOk. My FOI. | |
| 8 | He gets in drunk and hopping mad (8) |
| SEETHING – (he gets in)*, with the anagram indicator being “drunk”. | |
| 10 | Voiced appropriate toughness (5) |
| STEEL – Sounds like steal, or appropriate (as the verb, not the adjective). | |
| 11 | People may object to Spooner (7) |
| MANKIND – The Revd Dr Spooner, much loved in Crosswordland, might possibly have said Man Kind when he was trying to say Can (may) Mind (object). | |
| 13 | Essentially crass female’s a bit of a pig (6) |
| RASHER – RAS (“essentially”, ie innards of, crass) + HER (female or female’s – her can be used for either “that woman” or “that woman’s”). Rasher as in bacon.
The wordplay “essentially”, meaning “take some of the central letters of”, can be used for anything from all but the first and last letters of the word – as here – to just the very central letter. |
|
| 15 | In flap, if fleeing bull (6) |
| PIFFLE – A hidden, in flaP IF FLEeing, with the hidden indicator being the ever so innocent little “in”. Despite Shay’s clever misdirection that we should be thinking of flight from an angry bovine (which would certainly put me in a flap!), the meaning here is bull as in nonsense, baloney, bunkum and so on. | |
| 17 | Struck face of scoundrel with glove (7) |
| SMITTEN – S (face of, ie first letter of, Scoundrel) + MITTEN (glove) | |
| 18 | Sweet prince, very sad at heart (5) |
| HALVA – HAL (Prince Hal, the common short name Shakespeare uses for King Henry V before he becomes king) + V (very) + A (sad “at heart”, ie middle letter of). Halva is a common confectionary item in the eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, but I confess I have never acquired the taste for it. | |
| 20 | Moved to a lower station (8) |
| WATERLOO – (to a lower)*, the anagram indicator being “moved”.
There was a time when the cross-Channel trains from Paris to the UK came into London’s Waterloo station, which was perhaps a slightly insensitive reminder of a past defeat for any visitors from France. These days we are much more keen not to risk even the hint of offence; the new Royal Navy ship that was going to be called HMS Agincourt has been tactfully renamed HMS Achilles. |
|
| 22 | Caught evasive fish (3) |
| KOI – Sounds like (indicated by “caught”) coy (evasive). | |
| 23 | Person who feigns silence in the morning (4) |
| SHAM – SH (silence) + AM (morning).
When I first read this clue on the first pass, so without any checkers, I was absolutely convinced that I was looking for two letters to insert into A – – M, this being I thought the clear reading of “in the morning”. But no, it is the more straightforward “in the morning” meaning “a.m.”, as in “Six in the morning / 6.00 am”. |
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| 24 | Make crazy gardener endlessly angry (7) |
| DERANGE – (gardene)*, the anagrist being gardener without its last letter (“endlessly”), and the anagram indicator being “angry”.
Another interesting clue which I got royally wrong on my first pass, as I was fairly sure “make crazy” was the anagram indicator and “angry” the definition, which with no checkers to stop me or guide me, I made into ENRAGED. And my first down clue to intersect with it, NEIGHBOUR, seemed to confirm it. It took some further down clues, specifically ADRENALINE, to make me think again. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Layers of deposits and hair in sewer (10) |
| SEAMSTRESS – SEAMS (layers of deposits) + TRESS (very popular word in Crosswordland for hair). Sewer as in someone who sews, of course, not as in municipal drains.
Another clever surface, as deposits (of mud, fat, gunge etc) and hair are often found in our sewers. |
|
| 2 | Not at all tight, WC Fields rose at last (5) |
| LOOSE – LOO (WC) + S E (last letters, ie “at last”, of FieldS rosE). W.C.Fields, born William Claude Dukenfield (1880-1946), was an American actor, comedian and writer.
I biffed this thinking “WC gives LOOS, plus the E from rose” and then sat puzzling over what the reference to Fields was for. But no, the WC is singular and Fields is therefore necessary for the S. |
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| 3 | Rude about Victor having no money (9) |
| INSOLVENT – INSOLENT (rude) around (“about”) V (Victor). Victor is the word used for V in the NATO alphabet. | |
| 4 | My dear Dotty is away with the fairies (6) |
| DREAMY – (my dear)*, the anagram indicator being “dotty”.
The phrase “away with the fairies” has its origins in Celtic folklore, where it was believed that fairies were able to kidnap people to steal their minds or wits. Someone who was behaving strangely or out of touch with reality was thus said to have had their wits abducted by the fairies, and so be “away with the fairies”; the phrase then more generally came to mean to be distracted, daydreaming, or acting in a slightly bizarre manner in general. |
|
| 5 | Whatever starts to make everyone happy (3) |
| MEH – Formed from the initial letters of (ie “starts to”) Make Everyone Happy.
While it is good to see more recently coined words in the QC – Meh as a word appears to have become popular as recently as the 1990s, after its use in a 1994 episode of The Simpsons – I was initially not entirely convinced by this one, as to me, Whatever has the sense of “anyway” or “regardless”, as in “I intend to proceed whatever” (ie, even though I know you don’t agree), while Meh is more an expression of indifference or boredom, a sort of verbal equivalent of a shrug of the shoulders (ie, far from knowing you disagree, I don’t care whether you agree or not). But no doubt Shay would reply to my objection with “Meh: I shall write the clue that way whatever …”. So it is fair enough. |
|
| 6 | Clipped little horse, pet for pope (7) |
| PONTIFF – PON (pony, or little horse, with the last letter removed or “clipped”) + TIFF (pet). I had to widen the lens a bit to accept Tiff as a synonym for Pet: for me, pet carries the sense of sulk, tantrum, fit of pique rather more than tiff, row, argument. | |
| 9 | I learned an unusual response to stress (10) |
| ADRENALINE – (I learned an)*, with the anagram indicator being “unusual”. And a classic lift-and-separate, as an adrenaline rush is the usual (and indeed highly desirable) response to stress, not an unusual one. | |
| 12 | Huge robin worried nearby resident (9) |
| NEIGHBOUR – (huge robin)*, with the anagram indicator being “worried”. Our 7th and final anagram. | |
| 14 | Leaves tots to be raised by a companion (7) |
| SPINACH – SPIN (nips, ie tots, reversed, indicated by “to be raised) + A (from the clue) + CH (companion, CH being the abbreviation for Companion of Honour). This was my LOI, biffed to stop the clock and a considerable PDM when I worked out the parsing for this blog. | |
| 16 | Naked relative scratching backside with plug (6) |
| UNCLAD – UNCL (relative, ie uncle, with the last letter deleted, indicated by “scratching backside”) + AD (plug, advertisement).
The picture this conjures up of an elderly male relative in the altogether and attending to an itch is not exactly heartwarming early in the morning! |
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| 19 | Compare fungus and alga, as some might say (5) |
| LIKEN – Which sounds like (ie “as some might say”) Lichen.
Not being a botanist I went scurrying to find the proper definition of a lichen, and found “A Lichen is a complex life form that is a symbiotic partnership of two separate organisms, a fungus and an alga”. So Shay got that one absolutely spot on. |
|
| 21 | Tree found in Israel, mostly (3) |
| ELM – A hidden, in IsraEL Mostly. Care is needed here as the hidden indicator is “found in”, not as I briefly thought “mostly” – mostly can be used as a hidden indicator, but not here because the M is already doing duty as the last letter of Elm. | |
22 minutes which testifies to another tricky one and/or a setting style I’m not familiar with.
I got into a right old muddle in the SE having confidently entered ENRAGED (angry) at an early stage which gave me problems with all the adjoining Down clues. Another instance of a clue which taken in isolation has two possible solutions, but this is a crossword so one has to fit answers together making only one of the solutions valid.
Luckily, I had LIKEN in place before doing 24a, so never thought of ENRAGED, otherwise I would probably have fallen into the same trap.
Great debut, really enjoyed this one! Some lovely surfaces.
10:40
> if the new injunction against random girl’s names was not in place
I missed it! When did that happen? Welcome this wholeheartedly though — random names were extremely annoying.
See the intro to my QC blog last Monday. Note the new guidance applies only to wordplay, not answers.
I love halva, but it is not easy to find in these parts (Leeds).
Also, halva is not just common in Middle East and east Mediterranean as our helpful blogger notes. It is also quite common in India for example.
Another tricky one taking me over target yet again. From DREAMY to SEAMSTRESS in 12:21. Thanks Shay and Cedric.
6:50. Delayed quite a bit with a confident ENRAGED for 24A. LOI RASHER thinking “essentially” was just the middle letter of crass, but SEAMSTRESS showed me the light. A good start by our new setter. COD to LOOSE. Thanks Shay and Cedric.
15:10, falling in to the same traps as everyone else, including ENRAGED and A—M.
I have spent part of the last two days using a wire brush to remove lichen from my garden fence ahead of repainting, so LIKEN came to mind more easily than it might have otherwise done.
Thanks Cedric and Shay
A mild bleach solution does the job a lot quicker, though you do have to protect any nearby plants.
DNF SPINACH. Of course! But Tots=Nips a bit of a stretch, unless one lives in Lunnon.
Liked WATERLOO, SHAM, LIKEN (COD), PIFFLE, HALVA.
Cnp MANKIND, STEEL, PONTIFF.
PDM SEAMSTRESS and ADRENALINE.
Blog much needed, Cedric.
I think tots and nips refers to wee measures of whiskey – rather than to kids, so not a stretch methinks 🙂
Ah, of course.
Toughest of the week for me but a very enjoyable challenge.
The SE was made more difficult by the fact that I joined a number of others in the ENRAGED club until ADRENALINE came to my rescue.
Started with AGO and finished with PIFFLE in 12.32 with joint CsOD to DERANGE for the misdirection and SMITTEN for the surface.
Thanks to Cedric and Shay
13 minutes for this one from our new setter. I found the puzzle a bit harder than average, particularly the parsing of SALLIED, HALVA (had forgotten the word) and SPINACH for the tricky wordplay. I had the same problems in working out DERANGE as a few others it seems. I’m not a big fan of Spoonerisms, but MANKIND was a good example of the genre.
Thanks to Cedric and thanks and welcome to Shay
16:55. Enjoyed this settler’s clues!
Had to hit the reveal button several times. Only got 3 of the crosses on first pass. Fared much better with the downs. Thanks for the parsing Cedric, I entered a few without understanding why. Perhaps the most difficult one of my short QC career.
Throwing my hat into the ring by stating that for me this is a brilliant new setter. Witty, accurate and delightfully misleading clues. Loved MANKIND, KOI, RASHER and UNCLAD. Thanks to Cedric and Shay.
FOI MEH
LOI SEAMSTRESS, where I worried that I was looking for a technical term for layers of deposits
COD UNCLAD
More of this please, soon!
Just to add that I agree, and even though I took a long time to complete the grid I was smiling and enjoying it while doing so. Not all long solves are unappreciated! Some of the clues are very clever, none of them is unfair, and any puzzle which misleads both John Interred and me (along with several others) in the same way has a certain je ne sais quoi.
^^ agree with this verdict!
15:04
NHO HALVA. And pet=tiff requires knowing the obsolete meaning of “pet”, which I only encounter in crosswords. Another one for the retirement home.
Always panic when seeong Spooner as there is little method to trying to solve them. Neede all the checkers then biffed, then flipped the letters and “saw” it.
COD LIKEN
Four parsed, none biffed.
Had trouble parsing about half after the reveals.
Not convinced by spinach.
Confident start at 1d with SEDIMENTS. Oh, it doesn’t fit.
But things then took off and I found the wavelength. Inevitably, therefore, I thought that was a terrific puzzle with some brilliant surfaces – WATERLOO, RASHER, MANKIND, LIKEN and others. Very good fun indeed.
06:42 on the clock which astonishingly is a sub John. I can die happy.
Many thanks Cedric and welcome Shay.
Dnf…
Some good clues – but, continuing my Saturday theme, this was definitely not an easy grid and I had at least a couple of errors and empty answers – 9ac “Mope”, 11ac “Mankind”, 13ac “Rasher” and 14dn “Spinach” and 23ac “Sham” – all making me question my sanity.
Another hard setter to add to the growing list.
FOI – 5dn “Meh”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 2dn “Loose”
Thanks as usual!
Tough but enjoyable. Never got SEAMSTRESS as never saw the other meaning of sewer.
UNCLAD made me giggle.
Pi ♥️
11:36 for the solve! Hmmm – I certainly have no complaints about my time. I thought it was a little difficult while doing but answers seemed to go in at a fairly even rate. SEAMSTRESS and SALLIED my last pair in.
I quite enjoyed some of the clueing especially MEH, DREAMY and WATERLOO. Three soundalikes and a Spoonerism – please no 🤣 NHO HALVA but nicely clued. Hope future Shay puzzle’s will stay at this level – anything harder and they might have too much misdirection.
Not a bad week overall – 5 SCC escapes for an average of about 14mins. Just Thursday’s Izetti proving beyond me.
parksolve coming in at 36:52
Great week. Well done.
👍
Good time #50 – for the puzzle and the run.
Thank-you on both counts.
15:59. A welcome addition to the roster of setters. I started slowly with only a couple of across clues and not many more downs on first run through. However, once I had some checking letters the pace picked up and I finished in just under 16 minutes which is quite respectable for me. I see some have described it as most difficult this week, obviously you found Izetti’s easier than I did (a DNF for me). Another one where it’s hard to pick a COD but I’ll give it to LOOSE with honourable mentions to SEETHING, RASHER, PIFFLE, SEAMSTRESS, DREAMY and especially UNCLAD. FOI – AGO, LOI – HALVA which I haven’t heard of but the wordplay and crossing letters were generous. Thanks and welcome to Shay, also thanks Cedric.
So I was the only one who had DREAMS instead of DREAMY? There goes my excuse.
. . .it was an anagram, so the options were quite limited 😉
A testing QC but lots of good clues, clever misdirection, and PDMs. I started to enjoy the challenge more when my time reached the high teens and I relaxed because I knew I was inevitably going to tip into the SCC.
I share many of the comments above so won’t repeat them all. I do agree with Merlin’s first sentences above regarding PET and (NHO) HALVA.
I finished, having extricated myself from a couple of traps such as ENRAGED. However, I confess to biffing a couple.
COD to SEAMSTRESS.
A clever puzzle and a welcome new setter. Next time I see his name, I will make sure I have plenty of time and am in a mood to relax and enjoy even more lateral thinking than usual.
Thanks to both. Don’t make your next QC any harder, please, Shay.
First of all, a warm welcome to Shay. As for the puzzle, it was certainly packed full of pdms, so I enjoyed the solve even though it took me a long time – numerous interruptions, but probably 30mins worth of actual solving time. Perhaps Shay could drop the range a little next time out ?
I (wrongly) parsed 2d as Loos fields/catches the rosE, and would have given it CoD on that basis, but having read Cedric’s blog, 14d Leaves now gets the nod, just ahead of the Huge Robin. Invariant
7:41
My daughter brought some HALVA back from her Mediterranean holiday last year – can’t say I was particularly impressed by the taste or texture, probably due to too much sugar in my diet.
I found Shay’s first foray into QC land fairly gentle – as with others, I had ENRAGED for a while, but corrected on entering UNCLAD, and consequently the anagram at 9d became clear.
Thanks Shay, and for the excellent and entertaining blog, Cedric.
Favourite QC for quite some time. Found it witty and with just enough misdirection to keep me on my toes. At the time I parsed LOOSE as LOO contains/Fields last (two) of roSE, but then realised that SE wasn’t actually contained by LOO and that ‘last’ doesn’t really mean ‘last two’ of a single word 🤪 Thanks for clearing this up Cedric (excellent blog btw). Wasn’t sure about angry as anagram indicator but you clever people have accepted it, so I will too. So much to like including MANKIND, SPINACH and UNCLAD, but COD to LOI SEAMSTRESS for the PDM. More from Shay please!
A smidge over 15 and I got deranged immediately after discounting ‘angered’ as being the wrong tense and a derivative of angry and completely missing the enraged (isn’t that also the wrong tense? 😬)
Enjoyed both puzzle and blog so many thanks.
Shay…is that what a ventriloquist would?
Took ages, but an enjoyable solve after initially feeling Shay might be too tough for me. Felt quite Izetti-ish.
Bracing myself for Argyle v Liverpool FA Cup drama tomorrow… About as likely to win as for me to beat Busman’s time, but it’s a bit of excitement for the club in a difficult season. Go Greens!
my thoughts too – took it to bed Sat night (as is my practice, helps wind me down) and only got about 2/3. But finished in the morning.
57:13
My target is 20 minutes. Need I say more?
Must be difficult as a first time setter trying to find the right level. Some very enjoyable clues (especially MEH) but overall it seemed very tough for a QC ( to me anyway).
DNF. 3 on east eluded me.
Looking forward to more from Shay but hopefully a tad more QC than 15×15!
Thanks Shay and Cedric.
Yet another 60+ minute DNF to round off a truly awful week. More than 5 hours of toil for only three successful solves.
Whilst I got off to a reasonable start in the top half today, I ground to a halt as the doors of the SCC opened and solved only three further clues in the next three-quarters of an hour or so. In the end, I failed on MANKIND, ADRENALINE, (the NHO) HALVA, LIKEN, KOI, UNCLAD and DERANGED (where I had ENRAGED – a perfectly good alternative answer to 24a). UNCLAD, LIKEN and ADRENALINE all depended on DERANGE, and MANKIND, HALVA and KOI all depended on them. I revisited ENRAGED several times in the later stages, but always concluded that it was the correct answer. That shouldn’t happen.
Having deleted my records a few months ago I can’t check, but I’m fairly sure this week has been my worst since shortly after starting the QC over four and a half years ago. I just hope the new crossword editor gets a grip and reads the riot act to his merry band of setters.
Many thanks to Cedric for the blog, but not yet to Shay as 24a ruined everything for me.
There’s nothing wrong with 24a. It’s a crossword, you’re not being asked to solve clues in isolation, so if you’d solved ‘unclad’ or ‘liken’, which are both entirely fair, you’d see it can’t be ‘enraged’. I completely see why you put ‘enraged’, but holding your ideas lightly and being willing to rethink something if you’re stuck is part of solving. I get frustrated too, but I’m fed up with commenters giving the setters a hard time when they’ve done nothing wrong. Refusing to thank the setter because you couldn’t do it is just petulant.
At least you don’t just cry ‘woe-is-me’, unlike some others. Hope you have a better week next week.
Dear Mr H,
I agree that crosswords are there to be solved as a whole, so an error on one clue should be rectifiable once others are solved correctly. I also agree that all of the other clues are fair, including those I failed to solve, which is a comment about my lack of skills as a solver – not about Shay’s skills as a setter. However, I also think that it shouldn’t be possible to arrive at more than one legitimate answer to a clue and, I’m afraid, 24a did just that and is therefore an oversight by the setter and editor.
Regarding my reluctance to thank the setter: I would ask you to note my use of the word ‘yet’. I invariably thank the blogger and almost always thank the setter, although I notice that many people do not, and I’m sure Shay will receive my thanks on his/her next outing.
Another Hornby !
All green in 12.26 for this one . Tough but fair thanks Shay.
Keep going Mr R. If it is any consolation, you solved one more than I did this week. We’re both having a very bad patch, but hopefully things will soon begin to click.
You’re not alone in finding this tough going. And, indeed the whole week! Rather surprised you didn’t get ADRENALINE though. That was one of the few write ins for me.
I spotted that ADRENALINE was an anagram, but not having MANKIND, HALVA or KOI, and already having the incorrect ENRAGED at 24a, I was faced with ___E_____d and no amount of juggling with the remaining letters got me anywhere near the correct solution.
We were about on par at 12:55 but it certainly felt like hard work. Knowing HALVA helped but, left to my own devices, I’m not sure I would have got LOI SEAMSTRESS without aids. It was Mrs T who manfully unblocked the sewer. Welcome and thanks to Shay though for an enjoyably challenging QC and thanks to Cedric for a typically entertaining blog.
19.07 This was tough but very enjoyable. MANKIND, KOI and LIKEN took a good while and I biffed LOOSE to finish. Thanks Cedric and Shay.
as a beginner I actually liked this one. it made sense. The only one I couldnt do was SEAMSTRESS, such a clever misdirection!
DNF with five outstanding after half an hour, but even though I rarely fail to finish these days I have to say that I thought some of the clues were lovely. I think that if Shay can knock the difficulty down by perhaps 20% or so, he or she will be a very popular QC setter.
Welcome to Shay, and thank you to Cedric for the reliably informative blog!
A DNF after about an hour with MANKIND and SEAMSTRESS unsolved despite having all the crossers.
Overall I enjoyed this first puzzle from Shay but as Wombat says maybe turn it down a bit next time.
I really liked LOOSE which was initially biffed and then appreciated for the clever wordplay.
Thank you Cedric for the very helpful blog.
Bearing in mind some of the times from much quicker solvers than me, I’m quite happy with my 11:25.
As others have said, this was very entertaining – lots to smile at, even the Spoonerism! Usually, that would have been my least favourite 😅 The huge robin made me laugh.
FOI Mope LOI Unclad COD Dreamy
Many thanks and welcome to Shay, and thanks to Cedric for the – as ever – excellent blog.
14.21. A very nice puzzle.
Coming in a day late to say how much I enjoyed this first outing by Shay which I completed in 10.35. I don’t know why there’s a fuss over DERANGE because ENRAGED does not mean ‘make crazy’ and that should be that. Our new setter clearly has a cunning knack for misdirection, thanks to them and to Cedric for a typically erudite blog that cleared up for me what was happening with the fish.
…. but ENRAGED does mean ‘angry’ and ‘Make crazy’ is a good anagram indicator for what follows.
I liked this one, and would rate it as moderate in difficulty. Also clever and amusing. More please Shay, but as others have said, no need to make them any more challenging.
Coming in even later to add my voice to the chorus of welcome and thanks to Shay for a very enjoyable puzzle. I found it chewy but not frustrating. A very pleasant distraction from the tasks of moving house.
And thanks to Cedric for excellent blogging.
Absolutely outrageous!I feel like my daily practice doing cryptics for 4 years has not borne any fruit!Maybe I should just stick to doing sudoku and kakuros..something I mastered in 3 months.
If you have read the other comments you will have seen that you were not alone in struggling with this one, even including some very experienced setters. Cryptic puzzles require a lot more general knowledge, lateral thinking and variety of technique than sudokus (I don’t know kakuros) so I’m not sure that many solvers can claim to have completely mastered them. There are always surprises and pitfalls around the corner.