Quick Cryptic No 2946 by Joker

Author   DoofenschmirtzPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

 

I found this one harder than average, but still enjoyable. I finished in 24:21, held up by a couple of incorrect entries that needed revisiting because they were blocking whole areas of the grid.

My FOI was the (incorrect) LABEL, my first correct one in was OAT, and my LOI was SEVERE, with its spectacularly unhelpful crossers. COD to ELFIN, by a nose from COMMENTATE.

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 Provide a report from inferior gallery, it’s said (10)
COMMENTATE – Sounds like [it’s said] COMMON (inferior) TATE (a gallery).
7 Name the Spanish bird flying west (5)
TITLE – EL (the, in Spanish) + TIT (bird), all reversed [flying west].

As it’s a palindrome, TIT doesn’t change when reversed, but I think this is the reading that works best.

I did myself no favours by entering LABEL here initially, thinking “must check whether there’s a bird called a ‘leb'”.
8 Have trouble with gums? Here’s support article (6)
TEETHE – TEE (support, on the golf course), THE (article, in grammar).
10 Taro from the east? That’s not right for cereal plant (3)
OAT – TARO reversed [from the east] without the R [not right].

I quite like the fact that Joker indicated reversal as “flying west” in 7ac and “from the east” here.
12 Rue arrest when changing financial officer (9)
TREASURER – (RUE ARREST)*
13 Ridicule father embracing heartless aunt (6)
SATIRE – SIRE (father, as a verb), containing [embracing] AunT [heartless].
14 Sway from side to side on street walk (6)
STROLL – ROLL (sway from side to side) after [on] ST (street).
17 Chosen exam about system of appointing MPs? (9)
ELECTORAL – ELECT (chosen, usually with “the”), ORAL (type of exam).

This held me up for ages: I was trying to remember whether subjects (and hence exams, my logic went) you opt to take at school or college were ELECTIVES or ELECTIONS. I opted for ELECTIONS, only to be forced into a rethink when some of the downs wouldn’t work.
19 Flower garland that is left to be sent back (3)
LEI – I.E. (that is) + L for left, reversed [to be sent back].
20 Bad cut with end of knife (6)
SEVERE – SEVER (cut) with the last letter [end] of knifE.
21 Delicate, small, of mini dimension ultimately (5)
ELFIN – Last letters [ultimately] of the first five words.

I’m going to risk being sent to blogger detention by calling this an &lit: the whole of the clue forms both the definition and the wordplay.
23 Cooked them evenly with great heat (10)
VEHEMENTLY – (them evenly)*
Down
1 Source of oil is too scented unfortunately (10)
COTTONSEED – (too scented)*
2 Rug is housemate’s in part (3)
MAT – hidden in houseMATe’s [in part].
3 One putting up with English clergyman (7)
ERECTOR – E for English + RECTOR (a clergyman).
4 Shred potato, adding in last bit of salt (6)
TATTER – TATER (slang for potato in the UK and – if memory serves – in The Shire), including the last letter [last bit] of salT.
5 Force failing to open lock (5)
TRESS – sTRESS (force) without its first letter [failing to open].

That’s a lock of hair, of course.
6 Initially coordinated hues, a mixture of coral and dark grey (8)
CHARCOAL – The first letters [initially] of Coordinated Hues, + A + (coral)*.

This clue would fit right in the 15×15 most days.
9 Fish I like lacking female’s vividness of colour (10)
BRILLIANCY – BRILL (a fish) + I fANCY (I like), minus the F for female [lacking female].
11 Staggered by Edward eating carnivorous animal (8)
TOTTERED – TED (Edward) containing [eating] OTTER (a carnivorous animal).

I’ll confess that “otter” wasn’t my first choice for a carnivore, but it’s definitely true that otters are carnivorous.
15 Hydrocarbon is blue in general character, not black (7)
TOLUENE – bLUE [not black] in TONE (general character).
16 Current  easy task (6)
BREEZE -A double definition.
18 Topic those people echo (5)
THEME – THEM (those people) + E (echo in the NATO alphabet).
22 That woman has left dad very overweight (3)
FAT – HER (that woman) taken away from [has left] FATher (dad).

I think that “very” is superfluous here.

95 comments on “Quick Cryptic No 2946 by Joker”

  1. Thanks d. I made the same elections mistake, and apparently was absent from chemistry class the day Toulene was discussed.
    Taters are also potatoes in the US, except for tomorrow which is baseball (real) opening day, when the most frequent useage will be as slang for a home run.

    1. Growing up one of my favourite baseball players was Frank Lary of the Detroit Tigers. Besides being known as “Yankee Killer” another of his nicknames was “Taters”. He grew up on an Alabama cotton farm and that was what he called his favourite food.

  2. COMMENTATE and COTTONSEED held me up for the entire solve, and only preceded TOLUENE (distantly remembered from an earlier puzzle) as last in. I found this tough but enjoyable, and finished in 13.27. Is OAT ever used in the singular? Thanks to Joker and Doof.

      1. Yes it is. But if (borrowing from the clue) someone asks ‘what is that cereal plant?’ nobody is going to answer ‘it is an oat.’ It just looks strange by itself in the singular…

    3. Wiktionary thinks oat is often used in the singular:
      Noun
      oat (countable and uncountable, plural oats)
      (uncountable) Widely cultivated cereal grass, typically Avena sativa.
      The oat stalks made good straw.
      The main forms of oat are meal and bran.
      World trade in oat is increasing.
      (countable) Any of the numerous species, varieties, or cultivars of any of several similar grain plants in genus Avena.
      The wild red oat is thought to be the ancestor of modern food oats.
      (usually as plural) The seeds of the oat, a grain, harvested as a food crop and for animal feed.
      A simple musical pipe made of oat-straw.
      The tiniest amount; a whit or jot.

  4. I found this quite tricky in parts. NHO the hydrocarbon and failed to see ‘tone’ for ‘character’. I also put in BRILLIANCE which made VEHEMENTLY impossible until I saw the error. ELECTORAL was OK as I saw the oral/exam part. We had title/name in the last few days so that went in without a problem. Liked ELFIN. Had trouble figuring out COTTONSEED from the anagrist.
    Thanks D and setter.

  5. I don’t have an exact time for this as my solve was interrupted and I lost track. I had looked at the clock shortly before the distraction and noted I had been 15 minutes with 5 answers missing, so I was already over my target time. My best guess is 25 minutes which is not at all good for me.

    COTTONSEED wasn’t too difficult to work out although I didn’t know it gave oil. TOLUENE, VEHEMENTLY and COMMENTATE struck me as tricky. And BRILLIANCY because it’s a potential biff-trap, but fortunately I already had the Y-checker by then. I got TOLUENE eventually from wordplay and checkers and also remembered it’s represented by the second T in TNT.

  6. The 1A/1D pair were my L2I, and their absence made this a more demanding solve than it might otherwise have been. But a completion in 10:18 suggests it was Joker being quite friendly overall. I also had BRILLIANCe at first, wondering a bit how “I like” became Fiancé then iance, but VEHEMENTLY put that right.

    Many thanks Doofers for the blog.

  7. DNF – NHO TOLUENE ( and didn’t pick up TONE) .
    Lovely puzzle. Enjoyed this, though, on post blog reflection, unnecessarily slow with COMMENTATE, COTTONSEED, ELECTORAL.
    16d BREEZE – slightly struggle, can align with easy, not so readily with ‘easy task’. Most DDs lend themselves to substitution and can stand on their own. ‘Can you give me a breeze?’ hmm. Are we missing the point?
    Thanks D and setter. Happy start to a minus 6C Arctic morning.

      1. hmm.. I get that …however, such response has presumably been predicated by the question, ‘how was it (the task)’ – ‘breeze’ of itself does not mean ‘easy TASK’ – it means ‘easy’ in that it only describes how the task was… I can say, ‘I will give you an easy task’ – however, I cannot say, ‘I will give you a breeze’.
        Too pedantic? Not what is required of a double definition?

          1. Noted… and we are not trying to be critical, simply to learn. We have not long ventured out of our previously permanent position in the (V)SCC..and we are still usually to be found nearby.

  8. Did this just after midnight after a few sherbets and I thought it was a good QC from the Joker. Was breezing towards a top ten of all time finish but ended up with all green in 10:22 after being severely hampered at the end on account of lazily entering BRILLIANC[E} which made POI VEHEMNETLY a chore until I got the pen and paper out. LOI was TOLUENE which as a former research chemist I saw very early but couldn’t for life of me parse and then only had the confidence to enter it once the last checker went in. Thanks for blog doofers I shared your sentiment on OTTER. Which reminds me what’s a Tarka Dahl? Its like a korma but a little bit ‘otter.

  9. Missed my target, largely because of falling into the “brilliance” trap without bothering to parse it. After 4 minutes plus change I was left with two clues, and by the time I realised that VEHEMENTLY was an anagram, provided I changed that offending E, and then biffed my LOI (parsed afterwards), my time has gone up by 50% or so.

    FOI TITLE
    LOI TOLUENE
    COD COMMENTATE
    TIME 6:29

  10. Found this tricky in places with the unknown COTTONSEED and TOLUENE causing a lot of problems. I’m sure I’ve seen LOI BRILLIANCY before but for some reason, as a word, it looks wrong to me but the wordplay was clear.
    Finished in 9.34.
    Thanks to Doofers and Joker

  11. I solved 1A and 1D without undue delay, but TRESS and TEETHE resisted, and I too saw ELECT, but saw …ions wasn’t the ending, and failed to find the oral for much too long. Foolish boy.
    Never did chemistry and DNK the stuff, and the cryptic was a bit too cryptic to me until the PDM for my LOI. An enjoyable trip to the SCC, thanks Joker and Doof.

  12. This was perfectly pitched for me, not too easy, not too hard. I’ve seen many comments which refer to Snitch as a measure of difficulty. How can I see Snitch rating for today’s puzzle? Can Snitch be used by the Crossword Editor as a guide to new setters for target difficulty: “Recommend setters aim for a Snitch of xxx, =/- 15.”? Many thanks to Joker and Doofers for today’s puzzle and blog.

    1. The SNITCH rating (see here) is currently 109, which is consistent with “a little harder than average”.

  13. 5:33. Nice one. As Ianb said re difficulty. LOI VEHEMENTLY. Thanks Joker and Doofers.

  14. 12:53

    I thought this was difficult to finish, though probably should have seen STROLL much sooner. I was stuck on the fish in 9d, needed to write out the unlikely letters of 23a, and have no idea what either a hydrocarbon is, nor what TOLUENE is, nor what it is used for – needed all of the checkers even to make a guess at this.

    Thanks Doofers and Joker

  15. An entertaining puzzle with the odd trap causing a rethink occasionally – BRILLIANCY not BRILLIANCE and ELECTORAL not ELECTION. Dredged TOLUENE from somewhere and finally saw COTTONSEED (LOI).

  16. I was stuck on COTTONSEED (NHO but workoutable) and COMMENTATE (not sure why this one took a while, I am a member of the TATE and it is almost always what GALLERY points to). Also, NHO BRILLIANCY, as opposed to BRILLIANCE, which it appears to be a direct synonym of, but this one was very obvious from the wordplay. I had no problem with TOLUENE.

    Overall I enjoyed this one, not too hard, not too simple, and wasn’t desperately slow, 12.43.

  17. Some very clever clues. I found it hard.
    Most of my ERs have been listed above.
    Thanks to both.

  18. 17:22 (death in battle of the pirate Bartholomew Roberts)

    I struggled with this. I also went for ELECTIONS at first, which made TOLUENE hard to get. BREEZE and SEVERE were my L2I.

    Thanks Doofers and Joker

  19. Battled for over an hour, gave up with the SE corner beyond me (five to the bad). Every word achieved only gave crossers of more E’s (15, 16, 18). NHO TOLUENE. Had to be COMMENTATE but the word used not to exist (a commentator = someone who comments, not commentates), surely one of those US neologisms created merely because a longer word sounds more weighty, cf. expiration date. Misery – had been finding Joker quite friendly recently. Thank you, Doofers.

    1. tri nitro toluene aka TNT

      But I didn’t get it either which is shameful given that I studied chemistry and molecular physics. I think of hydrocarbons as chains and branches and forget completely about rings like benzene and phenols.

      Happy days…

      1. So, TNT – which we have all HO! That’s a big comfort, that even a scholar of chemistry didn’t get it – thanks. I don’t “think of” hydrocarbons as anything – completely closed book to me. Mrs M (whose science GK is better than mine) thought it might be something to do with oil. I do remember one or two chemistry lessons, was all double Dutch to me, thank goodness I never even had to take O level (did have to take Physics A level in order to do maths, but failed it not once but twice). Thanks!

        1. I had to take French O Level as a modern language used to be a prerequisite to go to university. Fortunately that requirement disappeared around 1970. I failed French three times and English once because I found spelling difficult. That was before we had dyslexia.

          1. That’s most amusing – I failed French, too! And I almost failed English – in both it’s due, I think, to a mild(ish) case of autism, whereby I understand the words but fail to “twig” the sense of what’s being said or written. So in an exam my comprehension consistently failed. But it wasn’t just that; I’ve always found French an infuriatingly illogical and difficult language in that you hear someone saying “ton” and it could be tant, ton or temps, no telling without context. The composer Saint-Saens famously had his visiting cards printed with just the huge number 500 on them – cinq cents – pronounced the same! After the school language teacher gave up on me I went on to learn German and Italian by myself and speak both fluently, but French has eluded me ever since. A pleasure to hear from you.

            1. English, too, has words that mean different things but sound the same. Also, the same word can have two opposite meanings. I’m glad I learnt it as a native! I’m not defending French, though, even though I speak a little.

  20. DNF++. Not on the wavelength. Managed COMMENTATE and COTTONSEED eventually, having plodded around solving the occasional clue. Doubtfully put Elections which did not help. Never even faintly HO TOLUENE!
    Somehow unhappy with BRILLIANCY as opposed to Brilliance, but it had to be. Came unstuck in SE. Shd have got BREEZE but aforementioned bad biffs were unhelpful. Missed SEVERE too. Oh dear.
    Not my day, so did not enjoy, except CHARCOAL.
    But thanks, Doofers.

    1. The term BRILLIANCY is used in Chess to describe a move that very few people see, often because it involves the sacrifice of a major piece (e.g. a queen or a rook), but which turns out to be extremely strong and changes the dynamic of the game. Needless to say, I have never played one (except unwittingly, perhaps).

  21. 27.25 Completely off the wavelength and slow throughout. COTTONSEED, COMMENTATE and BREEZE were the last few. Thanks Doofers and Joker.

  22. I found that hard (Joker usually is), but not unreasonably so. Something over 40 minutes for me, which is the maximum time I want to be detained by a QC.

    Both COMMENTATE and COTTONSEED arrived late for me, which meant I had to grind it out without the help of their checkers. The more challenging pairing, however, were my L2I: SEVERE and BREEZE. I found myself staring at _E_E_E and _R_E_E without inspiration for some time before they revealed themselves. Just how do our faster solvers routinely hit upon the correct words with a minimum of delay in these situations?

    Many thanks to Doofers and Joker.

  23. 14:26 for the solve. Held up past by 8mins by four. VEHEMENTLY was unravelled on paper, COTTONSEED I crossed off the wrong letters and held up by trying to put in a second S. TOLUENE and BREEZE (LOI) adding another minute at the end. COMMENTATE went straight in as did many of the Acrosses; TITLE straight in too after seeing it yesterday. ERECTOR held me up as I was desperate to put a VEN in there.

    Thanks to Joker and The Doof.

  24. Rather slow on this one but at least I managed to avoid the careless errors of the last couple of days. NHO cottonseed as a source of oil and the anagram wasn’t the most straightforward. Thought of toluene quite quickly but couldn’t initially parse it. A most enjoyable if somewhat tricky puzzle which I eventually finished in 28 minutes.

    FOI – 10ac OAT
    LOI – 16dn BREEZE
    COD – 9dn BRILLIANCY

    Thanks to Joker and Doofers.

  25. Oat, treasurer, electoral and lei came instantly as near as darn it, as did mat and fat, then it all went dark.

    This clue came to me, as in I thought it up, about five AM. No idea why…

    Dance without end of knife (4)

    Should be easy for the veteran solvers.

  26. Another one that I found difficult to start. I couldn’t see Cottonseed nor Commentate until quite a few crossers were in place. Toluene on the other hand was a write-in, thanks to an unused Chemistry A level – I knew it would come in useful one day.
    The unhelpful crossers for loi Severe pushed me beyond 25mins, but that was still a bit quicker than yesterday’s horror show. CoD to Brilliancy – clunky but effective. Invariant

  27. The Joker did me on this one, as I struggled to the finish in 14.52. A quick glance at the time told me I was just about on the ten minute mark with two to get, and then the wheels fell off. I fell into the trap of biffing BRILLIANCE as others have done, but after correcting it I spent longer than I should have getting VEHEMENTLY. The real hold up however was my LOI TOLUENE, where my ignorance of what a hydrocarbon might be put me on the back foot. I failed for a long time to think of TONE as a synonym for general character, but was still unsure if this was correct. Happy to just finish with all correct in the end.

  28. 17 mins…

    I thought there were some tricky words here: Cottonseed, Toluene, Brilliancy – and a few answers where I wasn’t totally sure of, including Tatter=Shred. But a good puzzle overall.

    FOI – 2dn “Mat”
    LOI – 15dn “Toluene”
    COD – 8ac “Teethe”

    Thanks as usual!

  29. My FOI 1a Understate delayed me a bit. In my defence common not=inferior very often.
    As did Quadrophenia, Cedric et al 9d BrilliancE delayed me on 28a Vehemently where E not=Y. I didn’t get how the (f)iancé=like though, because it doesn’t. Grr.
    Thanks Doofers and Joker.

  30. DNF

    Oh, that’s annoying! Put ELECTOR for 3dn, a lector being someone who delivers church sermons and I thought an elector might be someone who puts people up for parliament. The correct answer is obviously much better but when all the across clues fit I never went back to check.

    All done in 16 minutes with slight hold ups for TOLUENE and LOI ELECTORAL.

    1. Is a Hector someone who heckles Rectors (or Lectors)? I think you should know.

      Hard luck today, btw. Better luck tomorrow.

  31. Contrary to the general flow, I found this easy (esp for a Joker) – all done in 6:56 – must have been on the wavelength this morning. 9d needed all the checkers so was LOI, and also my COD.
    Thanks J and D

  32. I fell into the ELECTIONS trap, and then the BRILLIANCE trap, managing to clamber out to finish in 19:14. A good few minutes spent at the end on LOI TOLUENE, which I will no doubt fail to remember for next time.

    Thank you for the blog!

  33. This seems to be TOLUENE’s first appearance in the QC and indeed only its fifth appearance in the TFTT database. LOI by a bit for me.

    I share Doof’s nervousness about labelling anything an &Lit, since it seems to stir the passions of some posters, but I agree with the classification! ELFIN my COD, lovely.

    Got home just within target at 09:25. On the QUITCH this originally gave me a pleasing perfect 100 WITCH score but it’s now risen to 105. Many thanks Joker and Doofers.

  34. 16:06. Tricky stuff from Joker, but as checkers started appearing, the answers materialised. I also started with LABEL.

  35. 18m
    Same as Vinyl but double the time.
    Had to come back to 1a and 1d after breakfast. Wonder if they would allow that in the championships as it seems to work for me…

    COD Commentate.

  36. Whilst COMMENTATE and COTTONSEED were not my FOsI they quickly followed MAT and TITLE so all those first letter checkers resulted in a very quick solve. I thought of TOLUENE quite early on (A level chemistry helped) but it was still my LOI as I wanted to parse it. I probably shouldn’t say this given I’m female but I rather enjoyed the cluing for FAT. 6:49 Thanks Doofers.

  37. Started off confidently with COMMENTATE, but got bogged down in the various places already mentioned. Slowed by BRILLIANCE until VEHEMENCY arrived, which was slowed by reading heat, in the clue, as heart. Didn’t see BREEZE or SEVERE until alll the crossers were in, and was held up for ages by COTTONSEED, where I’d been trying to shoehorn a cotoneaster into place. TOLUENE on the other hand went in from T-L—- and was parsed later. A-Level Chemistry finally coming in useful! Well over target again at 11:45. Thanks Joker and Doofers.

    1. Cotoneasters make fine, bumblebee friendly hedges. . . but I think you would struggle to get any oil out of one ?

  38. I had a real sense of deja vu doing this crossword. Were there just a lot of chestnuts or has this one actually appeared before?

  39. Only had 9 and 15d today that I couldn’t solve, been stopped in the past few puzzles due to my lack of fish knowledge! As I find myself not finishing the puzzles that often, decided to judge myself on how many of the clues I understand as cryptic clues, how many I get from checking letters without understanding the clues, and how many I have to check here for. Luckily it was only those 2 I couldn’t figure out, even after looking at the answers. Thank you for explaining the clues

  40. Well, that was a 16d. Very enjoyable and straightforward offering from Joker today. Thanks. As a chartered engineer and professor in an engineering department I feel that I simply MUST take issue with the clue for 5d. Stress is a pressure, or force per unit area. The clue could correctly have been ‘Pressure failing to open lock’.

    Gets more of a GRRR than a MER from me.

    However, thanks Joker for this and previous puzzles, which I have always enjoyed

    Thanks to Doofers for the blog

  41. This was going brilliantly until – after 11 minutes – I got completely stuck on the last five, which took me another 20 minutes:
    BREEZE
    ELECTORAL (stuck on elections)
    SEVERE
    ERECTOR (rector always escapes me)
    TOLUENE – never, I confess, heard of and hard to get to tone – I could only think of type.

    1. Literally Breeze-Blocked!
      I liked this a lot – thanks Joker, Doof & Jason

  42. Is everyone else on this blog a toff or does nobody take issue with Common = Inferior?

    1. I did raise an eyebrow about the old-fashioned Hyacinth Bucket use of common=inferior. But decided life was too short to comment.

    2. Finishing takes me long enough without allowing my outrage and social conscience to sidetrack me. But I did allow a MER, then again as I saw what was intended immediately, I ought to raise same eyebrow at myself. Life can get so complicated…

  43. Lots of enjoyable clues, with a snag at the end on BREEZE (no I won’t say it) and SEVERE, for a time of 16:32. I would have had less trouble with BREEZE if I hadn’t insisted on separating “easy” and “task” for so long. I especially enjoyed FAT, and SATIRE was good too; fathers are having sad times in Joker’s world today. My COD is BRILLIANCY.

    Thanks to Joker and Doof.

  44. As I’ve criticised the setter before, I should be fair and say that as a beginner I thought this was reasonably pitched, even though I was a few short. Thanks to the blogger.

  45. A very slow aimless plod today and ended up revealing both TOLUENE and BREEZE. NHO former and always struggle with DDs. Also incredibly slow to see COMMENTATE even after assuming —OMMENTATE (dearie me). Not on wavelength at all 😆 Liked SATIRE, ERECTOR and BREEZE. Couldn’t parse TRESS (I know!) TOLUENE now etched in my memory. Many thanks for the blog D. Thanks Joker.

    1. Dear Fabian,
      Don’t worry about struggling to solve _OMMENTATE as, after dismissing Q and the unpronounceable options, you still only had a 5% chance of guessing correctly. So, well done for succeeding.

  46. 11.35

    Totally breezeblocked on TOLUENE. Latin and Greek Levels normally help with these things, but they didn’t do a lot for my chemistry know how. Part of the problem was assuming it was a word I would know. Once I got over that mistaken assumption, the cryptic gives it you.

    Tricky but fair otherwise. Like SRC BRILLIANCY known from playing chess.

    Thanks Joker and Doofers

  47. 10.27. found this quite hard going and not a BREEZE at all! Nice puzzle though and worth the effort.

  48. I remember seeing LEI for garland previously in crossword land but having forgotten the exact word was glad it was well clued today.
    Nice QC and all finished in 34:16.
    COD ERECTOR for the PDM.
    Thanks Joker and Doofers.

  49. Finished this but used aids for a couple. Held up with a typo in charcoal which made 14ac impossible for seemingly ages.
    A fair cryptic crossword, although I found it tricky.
    Thanks Doof and Joker.

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