A very enjoyable puzzle from Jalna, slightly easier I think that his usual fare for us if my time of 9:41 is anything to go by. A couple of the definitions were perhaps a little vague and set me thinking hard, but both the vocabulary and the wordplay tricks are on the whole very mainstream and lead to a fine example of the QC setter’s art.
And so ends the friendliest week of QCs for some time – as measured by the Q-SNITCH – with every crossword from Monday to Friday under the par 100. I wonder what today’s will be and whether it will “complete the set”. For me the week had the fastest aggregate time since we moved to 6 QCs in January 2024 – 53 minutes for 6 puzzles. How did everyone else get on?
On edit: It appears that “everyone else” – or at least a decent number of people – did not get on as easily as I did on this, the stumbling block for many being some seemingly less than common vocabulary. And the SNITCH is well over 100 too. Apologies all for the misleading assessment!
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (abc)* indicates an anagram of abc, and strike-through-text shows deletions.
| Across | |
| 7 | Work teams gathered for ship’s voyage (6) |
| CRUISE – Sounds like CREWS (work teams), with the homophone indicator being “gathered”. | |
| 8 | Slow movement beginning to affect soldier in trouble (6) |
| ADAGIO – A (beginning to, ie first letter of, Affect) + GI (soldier) inserted into ADO (trouble).
We had GI in Wednesday’s QC and Mike explained at length the origin of how it came to mean an American soldier, and how the popular etymology of GI standing for General Infantry is a late formation at best. My own favourite derivation is that GI, ie Government Issue or General Issue, originally referred to military equipment and only later in World War II became a somewhat tongue-in-cheek term for military personnel, and specifically conscript soldiers, who were also “issued” or supplied to the military by government order. Whatever the origin, the term is now used for the archetypal American infantryman – and never to be applied to the Marines! |
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| 9 | Nodding perhaps is a salutation without talking primarily (8) |
| AGREEING – A GREETING (a salutation) with the T removed (“without talking primarily”, ie without the first letter of Talking).
The “perhaps” is because while nodding can be, indeed usually is, a sign of agreement, in some cultures, eg Greece, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, and parts of Albania, nodding the head can indicate disagreement or negation, the complete opposite of the more common “yes” meaning. And to complete the potential for confusion, in these regions a head shake from side to side is more likely to indicate agreement or affirmation. |
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| 10 | Vegan stir-fry option needing some hint of umami (4) |
| TOFU – A hidden, in hinT OF Umami, with the hidden indicator being “some”. | |
| 11 | A boy or girl? (6) |
| PERSON – PER (a) + SON (boy), and a person can indeed be a girl.
Per for A, as in “£1 a go/£1 per go”, is one of those crosswordland tricks that took me an age to remember when I started doing cryptic puzzles, but it is very common and worth noting down. |
|
| 13 | Comeback absolutely devoid of energy (5) |
| RALLY – REALLY (absolutely) with the E deleted (devoid of energy). | |
| 14 | Copper suppresses resistance in wine-producing region (3) |
| CRU – CU (chemical symbol for copper) containing R (resistance), with the inclusion indicator being “suppressing”.
Although cru now has overtones of quality (premier cru, cru bourgeois etc), the original meaning of the word in French is simply a vineyard or group of vineyards. |
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| 15 | Lower area alongside HQ (5) |
| ABASE – A (area) + BASE (HQ). Lower as a verb here. | |
| 17 | Kind of fancy tea urn (6) |
| NATURE – (tea urn)*, with the anagram indicator being “fancy”. | |
| 19 | Traveller to Oz initially lived in the middle of Wollongong (4) |
| LION – L I (initially, ie first letters of, Lived In) + ON (middle letters of WollONgong).
This was my LOI; the checkers -I-N do not narrow things down much and I was fixated on Oz being Australia – as no doubt Jalna meant me to be with the reference to the New South Wales city of Wollongong. Instead we need the mythical Land of Oz, and in the book “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, the main travellers to Oz are Dorothy and her dog Toto, who are later joined by the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion. And it is the last of these that we want and that enabled me to complete the puzzle. |
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| 20 | Staff go around back of theatre, unseen by an audience (3-5) |
| OFF-STAGE – (staff go)*, the anagram indicator being “around”, + E (back of, ie last letter of, theatrE).
I was well misled by this clue, as having worked out there was an E in the answer from “back of theatre”, I was convinced that it was inserted into something, given by “around”, and then could not see what. A big PDM when I realised how the clue worked – and a very smooth surface too, so it gets my COD. |
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| 22 | Live re-interpretation of Desire (6) |
| RESIDE – (desire)*, the anagram indicator being “re-interpretation of”. | |
| 23 | Piece from the Met I consider vomit-inducing (6) |
| EMETIC – a hidden, in thE MET I Consider, with the hidden indicator being “piece from”. And quite impressive to spread a 6-letter hidden across four words. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Gear up for game of cards (4) |
| BRAG – GARB (gear, as in clothes) reversed, given by “up” (as this is a down clue).
Brag is an 18th century English card game which contains similarities to poker, with hands ranked in order from most powerful downwards and players betting on their strength without seeing their opponents’ cards. It appears that the verb “to brag”, ie to boast about something, pre-dates the card game, which then got its name from the betting and bluffing part of the game as players “boasted” about how good their hidden hand was. |
|
| 2 | Various wetland birds, maybe (6) |
| DIVERS – A DD, with the first meaning (divers = various) perhaps slightly archaic now. The “maybe” is because wetland birds can be divers, but do not need to be. | |
| 3 | Challenging attitude of French husband-to-be (8) |
| DEFIANCE – DE (of in French) + FIANCÉ (husband-to-be). | |
| 4 | Absolutely explosive noise (4) |
| BANG – A DD. I hesitated a bit on the first of the two definitions, but the linkage is “Bang on” meaning “absolutely right”, or “Bang in the middle” meaning “absolutely in the middle”. | |
| 5 | Crayon left stuck under glue (6) |
| PASTEL – PASTE (glue) + L (left) underneath it (“stuck under”), this being a down clue.
I am perhaps more familiar with pastel meaning a light or delicate shade of a colour, as in “pastel greens and blues”, but pastel as a crayon is a mainstream meaning as well. |
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| 6 | Type of convection heater in new farriery (3,5) |
| AIR FRYER – (farriery)*, with the anagram indicator being “new”. | |
| 12 | Inspector, formerly a pit worker (8) |
| EXAMINER – EX (formerly) + A MINER (a pit worker) | |
| 13 | Pursue support involving peacekeeping organisation (3,5) |
| RUN AFTER – RAFTER (support, especially for roofing) containing UN (peacekeeping organisation), the inclusion indicator being “involving”. | |
| 16 | Family member finally kinda let loose? (6) |
| AUNTIE – A (finally, ie last letter of, kindA) + UNTIE (let loose). | |
| 18 | It’s set out to collect the church donations (6) |
| TITHES – TIS (anagram of its, with the anagram indicator being “set out”) containing THE (from the clue), with the inclusion indicator being “to collect”. “Set out” as an anagram indicator was new to me, but it is clear what is meant. | |
| 20 | Managed to get rid of top column with a slant? (2-2) |
| OP-ED – COPED (managed), with the C deleted (indicated by “get rid of top”).
I used to think Op-ed meant something like Opinion/Opinionated Editorial. In fact the derivation is “Opposite the editorial”, which in many papers was a position reserved for staff of the newspaper to write an article expressing a view, rather than a factual piece of news reporting. In the Times, however, the page opposite the editorials is reserved for Letters to the Editor – and these are often very opinionated indeed. |
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| 21 | Unpleasant characters appearing regularly in gory instant message (4) |
| GRIM – G R (1st and 3rd letter of, ie “characters appearing regularly in”, GoRy) + IM (instant message).
IM was new to me as an abbreviation for instant message, but it is apparently common for those more IT-literate than me. And it is even used as a verb, as in “Did you just IM me?” Though how one spells the various verb forms such as IM-ing, IM-ed I don’t know. |
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I thought this was a bit chewy in places but it ended up being a fun crossword with some very clever cluing. I could see what was going on in 19a LION but figuring out the wordplay was tricky as I thought ‘in the middle of Wollongong’ would mean that ‘ON’ would be the outer letters, but saw what was going on eventually. Similar thought re OP-ED as I initially thought ‘get rid of top column’ was the instruction to get rid of the ‘C’ from column, leaving ‘with a slant’ as the definition, which seemed pretty weird. Couldn’t see the card game BRAG in 1d for ages thinking it was an anagram of ‘gear’. AGREEING was slow to come. Couldn’t see DIVERS in 2d and had to reveal, but should have seen it. Everything else pretty straightforward today. I especially liked the setter’s use of ‘convection heater’ for 6d AIR FRYER which is exactly what it is, a mini fan-forced oven. COD to the lion from WOOLONGONG.
First-class blog Cedric as usual and thanks setter.
I don’t need to post at length today because your experience mirrors mine almost exactly. I also had real trouble with OP-ED but did manage to see DIVERS.
Thanks. Thanks, too, to Jalna and Cedric.
12 minutes, no problems.
A DNF to finish the QC week as I pulled up stumps at the 10 minute mark with no clue at all what was going on for DIVERS – I’ve not seen that spelling of ‘diverse’ before and assumed I was looking for an unknown breed of duck.
Other than that a pleasant enough solve with only the parsing of LION putting up much resitance.
Thanks to Cedric for the excellent blog and Jalna for the education.
‘Divers’ meaning various is best known to me from the Bible, as in, ‘My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations.’
I found this trickier than Cedric’s usual impeccable blog would imply (a Snitch of 114 at the moment suggests I’m not wrong), and my LOI was a NHO rescued by seeing “coped”.
I also didn’t recognise the abbreviation “IM” and toyed briefly with “gris” as a sequential clue, before realising what was really going on.
FOI CRUISE
LOI OP-ED
COD TOFU
TIME 5:13
6:00 for an enjoyable solve. The hardest of the week for me, but that’s more a comment on what has gone before.
LOI DIVERS because of the unhelpful checkers. Thought PERSON and AIR FRYER were excellent, but a special shout-out to AUNTIE. Hopefully we all have (or had) one that kinda let loose once in a while.
Thanks Jalna, great blog Cedric.
30 mins though initially I had put gris for 21D.
RALLY took me some time, but the rest was fairly smooth
COD Auntie
Thanks Cedric and Jalna.
Took a long time to get started with nothing jumping out, so after about 6 blanks headed for the only 3 letter and that got us underway!
Spent a long time looking at LOI divers convinced it would be some wading bird, NHO that spelling for various, but finally there after a dictionary check at 23.10
Had Alison for the girl for a while although couldn’t work out where the li came from.
Thanks Jalna, and Cedric for the blog and parsing of Lion, if only we had counted the letters at each end of Wollongong accurately we might have got it for ourselves!
22:30 Couldn’t brag about cruise divers or op-ed person. Parsed Lion as a member of The British and Irish Rugby Union International team that are currently down under and about to devour some wallabies…
I like the SCC.
Thanks J&C
GI – general inlistment as in drafted plebs / cannon foder.
It should be enlistment but you never know with it being two nations divided by a common language.
Nope. You’re right that it applied to conscripts, but it stood for Government Issue, and referred to the standard kit supplied to them.
Dnf…
Well – it scared a few of my horses – not that I have any.
I was going along quite nicely, but got stuck in the NW corner. I finally got 9ac “Agreeing” and 11ac “Person” (after thinking of all kinds of weird and wonderful name combos), but 2dn “Divers” eluded me. I hate any bird or plant clues, as my knowledge is sadly lacking.
I know as a kid “pastels” were often used to describe crayons – but proper pastels are quite different from the waxy things used by infants.
FOI – 7ac “Cruise”
LOI – 2dn “Pipers” (incorrect)
COD – 4dn “Bang”
Thanks as usual!
Solicitors’ favorite in divorce papers – infidelity on divers dates. I’m sure the double entendre is unintentional.
Maybe Saturdays are harder after all!
I went through Her-man, Lesley, Hillary as possible answers to PERSON. I quite like the clue now but it wasn’t helped by the portcullis grid’s lack of a starter letter.
Quite so re PASTELS. See La Maison du Pastel.
Indeed an easier week combined with a gradual improvement on my part. Good for the soul.
DNF. Enjoyable but needed hints for NW. DIVERS, of course! CRUISE, groan. Completely forgot Gathered could mean homophone.
And looked up card games for BRAG.
Rest OK. Had dimly heard of OP ED – anyway nothing else would fit.
Remembered LION. FOI EMETIC!
Liked TOFU, ABASE, RUN AFTER, AIR FRIER.
Blacksmiths can be Farriers – never heard anyone say they are going to the Farriery – but it was an easy clue. Later….oh I see, Farriery is the trade.
Thanks vm, Cedric. Oh dear, put Relay, not RALLY.
14.12 ABASE, AUNTIE and PERSON were all a bit slow and then I was breeze-blocked by the chestnut CRUISE. Thanks Cedric and Jalna.
12:44 (Gruffudd ap Llywelyn dies, whilst attempting to escape from the Tower of London)
I found this to be harder than average. Slowed down at the end by my LOI, CRUISE.
COD to LION.
Thanks Cedric and Jalna
From DIVERS to OP-ED in 8:53. Took a while to get CRUISE and AGREEING. Liked LION. Managed to remember OP-ED after seeing coped. Thanks Jalna and Cedric.
DNF
Divers = various? Hmm. Would never have got that so was left looking for wetland birds to fit the checkers and ended up with EIDERS.
This is the QC. How about endlessly varied water birds?
31:37 for the solve. Might be time to rewrite that blog intro. I was held up in the NW corner – partly because I put PACK instead of BRAG (a game I’ve never played). My last pair of DIVERS and PERSON both took me into the SCC and went in with hope as I only parsed the latter post-solve. DIVERS(e) would be my spelling for the various synonym.
I guess 75% of the puzzle was done within the sort of time I like to be doing these but when I look at the not everyday words in the grid (abase, emetic, adagio, op-ed, divers, tofu, cru) and how some of it was clued, it was probably always going to be a bit of a struggle rather than an enjoyable quick.
Anyway thanks to Cedric and Jalna.
Thanks ND. I think you’re right and I have annotated the intro. It just goes to show that judging how hard a QC is is actually quite difficult, because all solvers are different. Which may explain why unlike eg Sudoku puzzles, they are never given a grade.
Your time was faster than average so your assessment is understandable. Anyway, I think the main thing is to thank-you again for the obvious time and effort that you put into compiling your blogs – as well as staying up to the early hours to do them 👍
I found this one quite difficult. I got person in first pass but couldn’t parse it, even though Ive fallen for the same trick before. Auntie took ages (anagram of r & kinda anyone?) . Got Op-Ed easily but didn’t know what it meant. Had GRIS for Grim (regularly in GoRy InStant), it does sort of vaguely mean unpleasant. Defeated by Tithes (anagram of its set obviously which fitted all the crossers). Raced through all the rest. Thanks to Jalna & Cedric.
I have always heard the same derivation of GI , thing first, person later.
Nodding off isn’t yes or no!
I used this puzzle for another teaching session with my beginning student, so no time. I did see the answers fairly quickly. Having to explain the parsings and solving techniques to someone else does sharpen your solving skills. We kept coming up with the right answers, but not putting them in because we couldn’t parse them – tofu was a particular problem, because ‘hint of’ is usually used to indicate the first letter of a word. Here Jalna was definitely out to fool you, as when Spooner turns out to be a ladle.
A very enjoyable and well pitched QC ruined by DIVERS (really?) and OP-ED (not at all esoteric). Once I’d given up I sought help from both Mrs R and eldest Random son, both of whom are more accomplished QCers than me, …. but to no avail. We then came here, saw the solutions and they both said clues like these were one of the main reasons they stopped doing the QC. I have kept the faith, but I sometimes wonder why.
Many thanks to Cedric for the blog.
I had always assumed – clearly wrongly – that the ‘various’ meaning of DIVERS was one of the classic crossword chestnuts. Hey ho. One to remember, as it will almost certainly crop up again somewhere/time. The crossing letters are admittedly not very helpful here.
As for why ‘wetland birds, maybe’ was used as the definition, I now live near some wetlands. And there are divers there. And I set what I know!
Thanks for visiting us, Jalna. I did have to look up birds to get DIVERS, but thought it was a good clue.
I would have said DIVERS for various was a crossword chestnut as well. Guess it comes down to how many of these things you’ve done.
In any case, the best advice I got when complaining about a word that was unknown to me was “well you’ll know it next time, won’t you?”.
Good point!
Thanks for dropping in and offering some insight into your thoughts Jalna. Much appreciated.
I started this during the half time break in the Lions game at the MCG. Needless to say, I didn’t manage many answers for the next hour or so, but didn’t find it too difficult once it got my full attention. Bizarrely, having skated round some of Jalna’s traps, two of the easier clues, Lion🙄 and Auntie, were my last pair. No real time because of the earlier excitement down under. Invariant
DNF GRIS for GRIM! Also failed to parse LION and TOFU. But, hey, everything else was conquered.
Thanks, Cedric. Our 11:47 is perhaps slightly on the faster side for us but we found PERSON and OP-ED a little tricky. No such problem with DIVERS. Thanks also to Jalna.
Done first thing, and a typical Jalna challenge, which is what I expect and hope for. No unknowns except for OP-ED, but it parsed and couldn’t have been much else. Haven’t looked at the big one yet, as was at work, but expectations satisfied so far.
Well into SCC territory at 23:19, and with a typo to boot: PADTEL. But I knew what I meant, so it goes in my mental “complete” column. I had a bit of a quibble with the lion being a “traveller to Oz”: weren’t Dorothy, Toto and the Wizard the only characters who actually travelled to Oz? But the “rugby player” interpretation works, I guess.
Thanks to Jalna and Cedric.
Gave up dead on 20:00 with DIVERS, PERSON and CRUISE unsolved, and with no reasonable prospect of solving them. “Gathered” as a homophone indicator is new to me (and I don’t really see it, to be honest) and I don’t feel bad about the others. Oh well, it’s been a pretty good week overall.
Thank you for the blog!
It was the old A for PER that did for me today, and it’s no use saying to myself “well you’ll know it next time then” because I’ve seen it many times before and it just won’t stick!
So PERSON was LOI. Lots of possible CODs because this was a jolly good puzzle. I think ADAGIO nudges it.
All done in 08:20 for a Regulation Day. Many thanks Jalna and Cedric.
I was stuck on ABASE/AUNTIE for ages but everything else seemed to go in fairly smoothly. Luckily I’ve seen DIVERS before but I remember not knowing it first time round. Thanks for the extra info about OP-ED Cedric. I too had thought it was short for opinion rather than opposite – interesting. COD LION for the misdirection but also liked CRUISE as a reminder that ‘gathered’ can be a homophone indicator. Stuck for ages trying to parse before the penny slowly dropped! Thanks Jalna. A great QC.