I fairly romped through this in 7:29, almost the fastest I have ever done a puzzle I am blogging, so I can confidently say Mara was in friendly mood today, and I expect some very fast times. And it completed a full week of puzzles done in under my “par” time of 12 minutes. Yay!
That does not mean the puzzle was without interest. There were some sparkling clues (not least the last down one, literally) among the straightforward ones, and a few that caused me to stop and think for rather longer: I’m still not entirely sure I have fully grasped how the definition in 9D works, or the wordplay in 1A. I await illumination from others!
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 | Bitterness of those downtrodden in the wine industry? (4,6) |
| SOUR GRAPES – The phrase “sour grapes” describes a negative or bitter attitude someone has towards something because they cannot have it. The origin of the phrase is widely assumed to be one of Aesop’s fables, in which a fox tries to reach some grapes on a vine, and when he cannot and gives up, he exclaims “I didn’t want the grapes anyway, they were sour”.
The definition part of this clue almost jumped out at me – it was my FOI – but I find the wordplay less clear. One knows that the first step in making wine is squashing the grapes to extract their juice, and traditionally this was done by people stamping on them in a tub, which gives the downtrodden part, but most winemakers would try to avoid using sour grapes and concentrate on the ripe and sweet ones. So I’m not entirely sure how the clue works. |
|
| 7 | Leader of negotiations brought into bankruptcy dispute (3-2) |
| RUN-IN – RUIN (bankruptcy) with N (leader of Negotiations) inserted into it (“brought into”).
Run-in as a phrase meaning altercation, quarrel, dispute is at least 100 years old and possibly 200, but I have not been able to find a consistent explanation for its origin. The best an internet search can suggest is that around the time of the Battle of Waterloo (1815), “run in” was used interchangeably with “rush in” to describe a charge by foot-soldiers in an attack. If anyone has a better explanation, do tell us all. |
|
| 8 | Unsuccessful crime written into journal (6) |
| LOSING – SIN (crime) inserted into (“written into”) LOG (journal). | |
| 10 | Electrical unit in farmhouse switched over (3) |
| OHM – A reverse hidden, in farMHOuse, with the hidden indicator being “in” and the reversal indicator being “switched over”. | |
| 12 | French produce associate put in kitty (9) |
| CAMEMBERT – CAT (kitty) with MEMBER (associate) inserted into it (given by “put in”).
Our blogger Kitty features again, after her starring role last Monday (QC 2998). I don’t think I’ll ever see my name in a clue sadly … |
|
| 13 | Slice of meat — more unwise? (6) |
| RASHER – A DD, and an escapee from an Oink puzzle. | |
| 14 | Translation of phrase for skilled mountain climber (6) |
| SHERPA – (phrase)*, with the anagram indicator being “translation of”. | |
| 17 | Polar region that’s intact shaped around curved line (9) |
| ANTARCTIC – (intact)*, with the anagram indicator being “shaped”, with ARC (curved line) inserted into it, the insertion indicator being “around”. | |
| 19 | Part of the body — lap? (3) |
| LEG – A second DD, with a nice play on one’s lap also being a part of the body. Lap as in part of or leg of a race, for example. | |
| 20 | Industrial action hit (6) |
| STRIKE – A third DD – and we have not even finished the Across clues yet! | |
| 21 | Sense location through hearing (5) |
| SIGHT – Sounds like SITE or location, with the homophone given by “through hearing”. | |
| 23 | Rider saw moorhen flying about (10) |
| HORSEWOMAN – (saw moorhen)*, with the anagram indicator being “flying about”. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Languages bores actor in play (5-5) |
| SERBO-CROAT – (bores actor)*, with the anagram indicator being “in play”. And a very unusual 2 word anagram in that the first part of the answer (Serbo) is an anagram of the first part of the anagrist (bores), and the second part of the answer (Croat) is similarly an anagram of the second part of the anagrist (actor).
The definition here – languages, plural – is very interesting, because Serbo-Croat is considered by most linguists to be just one language, albeit in two forms, Serbian and Croatian. The key difference between them is that Serbian uses the Cyrillic alphabet and Croat uses the Latin alphabet; that apart they are largely mutually intelligible with only minor differences in vocabulary, accent and idiom, and are so closely related that they are considered to be more dialects of the single language Serbo-Croatian or Serbo-Croat than distinct languages in their own right. |
|
| 2 | Vase or bag, reportedly? (3) |
| URN – The wordplay here is EARN (ie bag something), which sounds like (ie “reportedly”) URN (vase).
Bag is one of those words with a huge number of meanings and uses, and it took me a moment or two to think of which of them meant to earn. But one can talk of someone being “the favourite to bag an Oscar”, which I think is good enough. |
|
| 3 | Filling for vegan? A cherry and chocolate sauce (7) |
| GANACHE – A hidden, in veGAN A CHErry, with the hidden indicator being “filling”. | |
| 4 | Learner in a musical lit up (6) |
| AFLAME – A (from the clue) + FAME (a musical), containing L (learner). | |
| 5 | Poems translated in classics course (5) |
| EPSOM – (poems)*, with the anagram indicator being “translated”.
Epsom Downs racecourse in Surrey, the home of three classic races, The Derby, The Oaks and the Coronation Cup, among many other lesser races. |
|
| 6 | Gate’s opening into latrine after turning key (8) |
| INTEGRAL – (latrine)*, the anagram indicator being “after turning”, with G (first letter, ie “opening”, of Gate) inserted into it. | |
| 9 | Odd right, as even number even! (10) |
| STRAIGHTEN – (right as)*, the anagram indicator being “odd”, + TEN (an even number). But I took some time to see even = straighten, which I think must be the definition but which seems to me to be incomplete – “even out” for straighten, certainly, but just “even”? | |
| 11 | Lie about gallery’s support for young woman (8) |
| MISSTATE – TATE (gallery) “supporting” (ie underneath, as this is a down clue) MISS (young woman).
The traditional meaning of “Miss” as an unmarried woman, as opposed to a young one, seems now to be fading away, though my aunt, well into her late 80s but never married, still determinedly uses Miss. |
|
| 15 | Journalist observed what could lead to cuts (7) |
| HACKSAW – HACK (journalist) + SAW (observed). | |
| 16 | Capital city hasn’t changed with invasion of English (6) |
| ATHENS – (hasn’t)*, with the anagram indicator being “changed”, with E inserted (“invasion” of English).
By my count this is the 8th anagram Mara has given us in this puzzle, five straight ones and three as component parts of the answer. Which I think must be getting on for the most I’ve seen in a single QC. |
|
| 18 | Huge animal Greek character chains up at home (5) |
| RHINO – RHO (Greek character) with IN (at home) inserted, the insertion indicator being “chains up”.
I wondered briefly why Mara had included the word Huge in the clue – it is not necessary, as the clue would work fine without it. The largest animals (measured by either length or weight) are all whales; adult Blue Whales average over 100 tonnes and can reach nearly 200. Compared with that, even the largest terrestrial animals, elephants, are quite modest, and rhinoceroses – which average about 2 tonnes and can reach perhaps 4 – are almost petite. But that is still pretty massive, so I think Mara can be allowed the extra descriptive. |
|
| 22 | Some sparkling emerald — is it? (3) |
| GEM – A hidden, in sparklinG EMerald, with the hidden indicator being “some”. And an emerald is indeed a gem, which links the definition and the answer. | |
I took some time to get LOI AFLAME, as I didn’t know the musical. Whether Serbian and Croatian are dialects or languages is a political question not a linguistic one (as Weinreich famously said, a language is a dialect with an army and navy), but in any case SERBO-CROAT is singular, and so should ‘languages’ be: ‘Languages bores’ is ungrammatical. 7:18.
I didn’t really take any notice of ‘sour’ in 1a until I read the blog. 9d gave me trouble as I had ?t?a?g???? with the first word of the clue being ‘odd’ so I assumed it would be ‘strange???’ until SIGHT and HORSEWOMAN set me straight, forgive the pun. AFLAME came to me after being unable to put an ‘L’ into ‘A’ and ‘HAIR’. MISSTATE took a while as I thought ‘tate’ would be in the middle of the answer, (Cedric, I think the definition is ‘Lie about’ rather than just ‘lie’). We had SERBO-CROAT very recently so was able to make that a write-in.
Thanks Cedric for another very informative blog, and thanks to setter.
9 minutes – a welcome relief as this is half the time I needed for yesterday’s QC.
I heard a report on the radio within the past couple of days, something about moves afoot in the Balkan states to have Serbian and Croatian officially classified as different languages rather than being lumped together as SERBO-CROAT. If I’d known this was going to come up here I’d have paid more attention to the detail. I think the grammar of the clue works if you read ‘Languages’ as a school subject. I suspect it isn’t used in that way these days but it certainly was when I was at school.
I think ‘huge’ in 18dn may be a concession to people constantly complaining that the QC is too difficult, so Mara chose to be a little more generous to newbies and less-experienced solvers.
Since starting only last year, this is my quickest ever completion. 22.06. Absolutely made up. I’m normally around the hour mark. Thank you to all on here as you are responsible for my improvement and new found love for this puzzle. (Don’t care if it was on the easy side!). Hacksaw COD for me, obviously.
Well done – it took me 6months to break out of the SCC and you are well on the way to that. Continue plugging away.
Incidentally, as a fellow sporty person, I have found there to be a dearth of sports science clues but you will likely see reference to rugby, cricket, football and occasionally marathons or winter sports. LEG ws there for us today!
Very well done!
7:37 for the solve. I’ve have found myself on Mara’s wavelength this year and this was my fastest solve of their QCs. I had little stumble towards the end with the RHS – biffed STRAIGHTEN which led to LEG, INTEGRAL and LOSING (LOI). Felt a little anagram heavy but with enough checkers on the board, they were easy enough to sort through. COD to SHERPA.
Amazing week for me – 4th sub-8 time – a total of 53:42 but I did have to correct Monday’s Oink where I was taken out to almost fifteen mins and impatience/despair got the better of me. The month of May has not been good for my completion percentage though – a run of six consecutive DNFs mid-month and only 18/27 successes. Something to work on.
Thanks to Mara and to Cedders for an informative blog.
No need for ‘their’, ND, as it’s well-documented that Mara is John Halpern who also sets as ‘Paul’ for The Guardian.
Thanks Jackkt – will try to remember in future
Astonishing progress. I don’t know how you’ve done it, but those times are staggering. Your days with me and others in SCC are in the past now. 👏
Thanks GA – I’ve probably just got a very good rote memory so once I’ve seen stuff it tends to stick
Very quick today.
Antarctica has 10% of the Earth’s land mass and minerals. Thank Goodness for the brilliant Antarctic Treaty.
My thriller, The Tip of the Iceberg, is based on a review of the Treaty.
Lovely puzzle completed in 14.18. LOI straighten took a while to see and was unparsed, thanks Cedric.
A gentle ramble to start the weekend going from SOUR GRAPES to ATHENS in 6.09 with COD to EPSOM.
Thanks to Cedric and Mara
10:55 with LOI INTEGRAL holding out at the end. I liked CAMEMBERT and RASHER. Thank you Mara and Cedric
Just squeaked in under 10 minutes. Having thought I was making quick progress, things slowed down with the INTEGRAL, LEG and STRAIGHTEN crossings.
Certainly a gentler offering which I completed sub 20 mins. My approach today started conventionally but then let loose in search of low hanging fruit, resulting in a patchwork to fill in the blanks at the end. Very lax work!
COD EPSOM. Only because of schoolhood. Others also appreciated.
Thanks Mara and Cedric for the entertaining blog.
Gentle indeed. From SOUR GRAPES to GEM in 6:14. Thanks Mara and Cedric.
14 in 20 minutes, predominantly west side. I thought it was going to be oink with rasher.
Three identified anagrams that I should have solved but didn’t. I really should start using pen and paper.
Thanks to setter for a gentle start to Saturday and to blogger for the explanations.
Computer glitch at 13.24 meant true time lost – however, less than 15m which pleased us.
Held up by entering SOUND in lieu of SIGHT. A sound decision, good sense…through hearing..ah, well.
We caught on (eventually). LOI SERBO-CROAT.
An enjoyable romp – and the documentary SOUR GRAPES (FOI) is, in our humble opinion, well worth a watch.
An eye into the world of vastly expensive wines and those who collect them, and an insight into how we humans mingle and mangle.
The protagonist is apparently out and about again, and not an unlikeable person. So – there’s a cryptic recommendation of sorts.
Thank you, Mara and Cedric -Cedric, you may not feature in a clue however your clues on solving feature in our world. : )
4.42
I was in possible PB territory today but the musical and the French produce caused my tapping finger to hover before the checkers arrived for my LOI STRAIGHTEN.
EPSOM was very clever.
Interesting chat about SERBO CROAT.
Thanks Mara/Cedric
10:25
I originally put SONAR for 21a, thinking “but that is barely cryptic”. GEM forced a rethink.
SERBO CROAT went straight in, having been in another crossword recently.
Thanks Cedric and Mara
Gentle indeed all green in 6.30 after taking the time to check for typos following a couple of frustrating fat-finger errors this week. Shared your misgivings about the GRAPES being SOUR Cedric nevertheless it was my first one in. LOI was MISSTATE.
Have good weekend everyone.
Around 30 minutes with some distractions
One problem with solving online is that you like a clue but by the time you have finished can’t remember which one it was. Anyway I remembered this time that I liked the surfaces of 15d HACKSAW and 21a SIGHT. It’s skillful to combine a clue with a good surface.
Thanks Mara, and Cedric for the usual informative blog.
Allow me a few sour grapes today as I plodded through a puzzle that most have flown through. Bah humbug. No reflection on a good puzzle, just few brain cells actually in action.
Wine grapes are, I believe, somewhat different to eating grapes and are often relatively sour to taste. Too much sugar buggers up the wine making process, you need that acidity etc. That’s why they tend to be grown up mountains in rocky soil and why global warming means some wine growing regions are compromised. I’m sure someone who actually knows this stuff will put it far better than me.
I think I will need a glass or two of that sour fruit based product later to alleviate my general sense of failure today…
Wine grapes are typically sweeter in terms of sugar concentration (sugar needed for fermentation) but usually don’t taste great – they have thicker skins, more seeds, and a higher skin-to-juice ratio. They can often be tart too, despite the sugar. Basically they’ve been grown for wine making, not eating, so can indeed taste sour!
Ah, “The Days of that Sour Fruit -Based Product and Roses.”
A fun QC and interesting blog. On a very minor point the Coronation Cup is not one of the five British Classic races.
21 minutes to finish- I don’t know why it took so long in retrospect. LOI INTEGRAL.
SOUR GRAPES my FOI but after reading the blog, agree with Cedric it’s not strictly accurate. Maybe there is some alcoholic beverage made with sour grapes.
Without an invasion of the English, Athens would still have its Marbles.
An enjoyable QC and equally enjoyable blog. Thanks Mara and Cedric
I found this very chewy indeed. Must be a wavelength thing. I finished it but haven’t the energy to go through my difficulties here.
Some good clues but most of it just didn’t click for me.
Thanks to Cedric for a very good, detailed blog.
Is there anybody out there who didn’t find this as easy as most of the posters above? Just a bad day for me, I suppose.
Note. I have just read Plymouthian’s post. Thank goodness there is at least one kindred spirit here! As he says, no reflection on the puzzle……
Perhaps I have joined the Athenians and have simply lost my marbles?
Bear in mind there is something of a “survival of the fittest” element to posting on here. The faster solvers tend to be posting first because they are done quickest. When I was beginning my solving journey I often wouldn’t be posting until late afternoon because I’d taken longer and maybe even stopped for breaks. It was always very depressing to read how easy the blogger and early posters had found it – apologies if my posts now have that smugness attached – but it is mostly awe, wonder and excitement rather than crowing.
Me! I took a very long time with this puzzle though I have no idea why. Everything but the northeast was easy. Then I was stuck. Put it away for a few hours to attend to real life, came back, and it was still pick-and-shovel work to complete. Very unusual for a Mara puzzle.
Thanks to Mara and Cedric.
Always a good start to solve 1a and 1d STRAIGHT away. Very fast until stuck on LOsI EPSOM(PDM with groan at my slowness), AFLAME (NHO musical), and needed hint for LOSING, all of which should have been obvious.
Liked RASHER, CAMEMBERT, ANTARCTIC, among others.
Many thanks, Cedric.
21 mins…
For the most part I agree with Cedric, this did seem a gentler Mara. But, even though I rattled through the left hand side and bottom, I ground to a halt in the north east corner, and struggled with 8ac “Losing”, 9dn “Straighten” and 6dn “Integral”.
However, as I have said many times before, it’s a Saturday – so I’ll take the win.
FOI – 1ac “Sour Grapes”
LOI – 6dn “Integral”
COD – 9dn “Straighten”
Thanks as usual!
Very fast indeed until hitting the buffers on the right, not seeing the partial anagrams in STRAIGHTEN and INTEGRAL for far too long and being unable to think beyond Hair and Annie for the musical. Unscrambled in time to hit 06:12 for still an Excellent Day, but cuddabinacontenda.
Many thanks Mara and Cedric. Great information on Serbo-Croat, that’s why we pay our subscription!
12:02, which I would like to put down to Mara being generally difficult but is actually down to lack of sleep and also just not being as good at crosswords as I wish I was.
SERBO-CROAT, OHM, RASHER and MISSTATE took ages. MISSTATE in particular. Seems obvious in hindsight.
The fact that SIGHT wasn’t a write-in probably shows that the lack of sleep is largely to blame here, to be honest.
6:59
I found this the hardest of the week, having to do more work in teasing out the cryptics to arrive at the answers. STRAIGHTEN was particularly convoluted so bunged in from checkers without too much thought.
Thanks Cedric for the education and elucidation, and Mara for the puzzle
Despite 1d/ac being useful write-in starts, I needed two or three pdms towards the end to keep things moving along. The NE corner was particularly stubborn, before Epsom finally came to my rescue, prompting Losing in the process.
Even so, this could only be described as a sluggish solve, with just the pick of the window seats as a consolation. Loi Leg confirms my inability (legendary in the Invariant household) to miss the obvious.
CoD to 9d, Straighten, one that I did manage to get from the cryptic. Invariant
But do you not perhaps mean your inability to see the obvious??
. . .a classic Definition By Example !
I suspect if you had a 2 ton rhino charging at you at 30 mph, you’d think it was pretty huge.
I am quite new to these and rarely solve them in under an hour, but I only started a few weeks ago and am encouraged to see that not everyone was born a sub-8 minute completer.
COD for me was “STRAIGHTEN” and my downfall was EPSOM, which I was convinced was “EPICS”, a core element of any classics degree. *sigh*
If you only started a few weeks ago; can already do them in an hour; and are reading and posting on here you’ll soon be under 20 minutes and wanting to tackle the Biggie. Good luck!
That has cheered me up considerably – thank you! Have had a peek at the Cryptic but so far have then just run away.
Katy, believe me, we all started with a diary rather than a stopwatch, so your progress to date is excellent. The 15×15 (biggie) is a completely different kettle of fish, but stick at it and you will get there.
Welcome, and we’ve all been there. And sometimes I’m still there after about 18 months.
Hi Katy – if it’s any comfort, it took me six months to get my first finished grid! The super speedy solvers are a breed apart, so there’s no point comparing ourselves with them 😅
Your success so far is very impressive (as the others have said) so take heart and have fun. That’s more important than speed in my book 😊
10:31. STRAIGHTEN was the hardest for me but once solved subsequently promoted to COD. Boy, there are a lot of three-letter body parts!
Eye can think of toe or three …
Reminds me of a clue we had last year “Old bone on one antelope (5)” which needed the checkers O-I-I filled in. The LIP isn’t a bone!
I think it might have been ORIBI?
… is the correct answer!
10:50. Thanks, Mara, and Cedric for the entertaining blog.
6.16 A gentle end to the easiest week ever, according to the Quitch. LOI STRAIGHTEN. Thanks Cedric and Mara.
Found this trickier than yesterday. Struggled far too long with Integral Camembert Aflame.
9:45 here, quick for me. All but two of the acrosses went in on my first pass, so I had hopes of being in PB territory. But I found the downs generally harder, and finally biffed STRAIGHTEN after spending too long thinking it would start with STRANGE.
Thanks to Mara and Cedric.
Definitely not as easy as our blogger would have us believe, although at around 30 minutes I’m not complaining too much.
I got off to a great start with SOUR GRAPES, but couldn’t capitalise on more than a couple of the starting letters it provided. So, it turned into a rather chaotic set of jumps around the grid before having to grind out my last few. STRAIGHTEN, CAMEMBERT, AFLAME and LOSING were jolly difficult and my LOsI.
Thanks to Cedric and Mara.
13:34, but another blasted pink square typo.
Made fast work but didn’t see LEG, going through all the other 3 letter body parts until I got there. This held up INTEGRAL and LOI STRAIGHTEN.
I found the NE corner quadrant quite tricky, with STRAIGHTEN in particular costing me dearly. I always enjoy seeing EPSOM come up, since I live there (and Leatherhead, just down the road, makes an occasional appearance in crosswords too).
15:08 all told, which is yet again around my average. I’m getting a bit surprised at my consistency, which often bears little resemblance to the experiences of others. If I weren’t so slow I’d be concerned that people might suspect me of being a neutrino.
Thank you for the blog!
Sour grapes…my drink of choice 🤣🤣
Sadly, I’m also finding it an all too common occurrence with some of my favourite supermarket wine these days.
Agreed!