My first time blogging a puzzle by Beck, and I enjoyed it very much. I think it will be on the easier side of medium: it took me 10:16, giving me the heady sensation of briefly being at the top of the solver list on The Times’ website. Normally, by the time I’ve finished, two or three of the speedsters have snagged the top spots.
I started with AL CAPONE and finished with BASELINE, which gets my COD nod for the misdirection. If you don’t like hiddens, this one probably won’t be your favourite, as it has three, definitely more than normal.
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 | |
| 3 | American gangster turning on palace (2,6) |
| AL CAPONE – (ON PALACE)*
An American gangster with the enumeration (2,6)? That’s your starter for 10. |
|
| 7 | Beat habitué of gambling hall (6) |
| BETTER – Double definition | |
| 8 | Where one finds studs and peer with multiple awards (8) |
| EARLOBES – EARL (peer) with OBEs (multiple awards).
OBE = Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. |
|
| 9 | Golden California marine menace (4) |
| ORCA – OR (gold, from heraldry), CA (official postal abbreviation for California, where I live). | |
| 10 | Function of some museums (3) |
| USE – hidden in [some] mUSEums.
That’s the noun sense of “use”. |
|
| 11 | Poisons ruined nice days (8) |
| CYANIDES – (NICE DAYS)*
I’d never thought of there being more than one cyanide, but a little research (err, asking my wife) tells me that the common poison is hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and that the C≡N group can bond to many other atoms and groups of atoms, forming other types of cyanides. They all seem to be pretty unpleasant. |
|
| 13 | Ahead of time, king or queen possibly returned money owed (4) |
| DEBT – BED (king or queen possibly), reversed [returned] ahead of T for time. | |
| 15 | Raised moolah according to hearsay (4) |
| BRED – homonym [according to hearsay] for ‘bread’ (moolah). | |
| 17 | Most entertaining stories found in jar (8) |
| JOLLIEST – LIES (stories) found in JOLT (jar) | |
| 19 | Impersonator failing to start cassette (3) |
| APE – I presume the origin of the verb “to ape” must have been that apes were copying human behavior, therefore ape = impersonator seems OK to me. |
|
| 22 | Depraved French town lacks heart (4) |
| VILE – The French word for “town” is “ville”. Remove the middle letter [lacks heart].
And there was me trying to think of specific 5-letter French towns beginning with V. I even found one – Vichy – but VIHY isn’t a word. |
|
| 23 | Cheer up English resort town, I say (8) |
| BRIGHTEN – Sounds like [I say] the English resort town of Brighton. | |
| 24 | Empty lockers holding nine torn sheets? (6) |
| LINENS – First and last letters [empty] of L Let’s agree not to be persnickety about empty lockers holding something. |
|
| 25 | Remove wet Conservative accommodating metalworking union (5-3) |
| TOWEL-DRY – TORY (Conservative) holding [accommodating] WELD (metalworking union). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Traitor bitter perhaps about carrying board (8) |
| BETRAYER – BEER (bitter perhaps) around [about] TRAY (carrying board). | |
| 2 | Stretch melody (6) |
| STRAIN – A double definition.
The first is slightly loose, a strain is often the result of not stretching. |
|
| 3 | Region situated in Far East (4) |
| AREA – Hidden [situated] in fAR EAst | |
| 4 | Drink freely on lake ride in US (8) |
| CAROUSEL – CAROUSE (drink freely) on L for lake.
We have an excellent one of these here in Santa Cruz, California. You should visit. |
|
| 5 | Called up somebody to interrupt Doctor of Philosophy (6) |
| PHONED – ONE (somebody) in PHD (Ph.D. – Doctor of Philosophy). | |
| 6 | Require newspaper man to go after leaders of Nigeria and Egypt (4) |
| NEED – ED[itor] (newspaper man) after the first letters of Nigeria and Egypt. | |
| 12 | Sad democrat kicked out (8) |
| DEJECTED – D for democrat, EJECTED (kicked out).
Until JOLLIEST came along, I thought this was going to be an anagram of ‘democrat’. |
|
| 14 | Hacked Balinese server location? (8) |
| BASELINE – (BALINESE)*
Oh, the tennis meaning of server! |
|
| 16 | Hang loosely some letters from Brendan Gleeson (6) |
| DANGLE – Hidden in [some letters from] BrenDAN GLEeson.
Our third hidden-word clue of the day. |
|
| 18 | Create popular outlet (6) |
| INVENT – IN (popular), VENT (outlet) | |
| 20 | Group temperature raised in free-for-all (4) |
| TRIO – RIOT (free-for-all), with the T (for temperature) raised. | |
| 21 | Just covering large yard (4) |
| ONLY – ON (covering), L (large), Y (yard) | |
Some lovely clues here with some requiring a bit of thought. EARLOBES, BASELINE, ORCA and others quite clever. Fell for the ‘American = A’ trick and tried to fit ALHAMBRA in 3a thinking it might be ‘Al Hambra’ for palace before the penny dropped. Very enjoyable.
Thanks D and setter.
19:12. Slow going but worth it- many great clues. I especially enjoyed TOWEL-DRY, EARLOBES, ONLY, and TRIO. At first I wanted DUET for DEBT before seeing sense.
Trying to parse DUET was where my brain switched out of flow.
5:42 – with the last 2 minutes dedicated to TOWEL-DRY and EARLOBES. A classic case of not thinking laterally enough, or rather confining the lateral thinking to not enough senses (studs = bosses and studs = horses). I was considering a MER at ‘remove wet’ (as opposed to eg ‘remove wetness’) as a definition, but that also seems persnickety.
13:57
I mean who spent any time at all getting started with AL CAPONE. It doesn’t get any more straightforward than that.
A little slow at the end with the INVENT/VILE cross. A lot of French towns to check.
CYANIDES seems an unlikely plural, but a chemist might be researching “one of the cyanides”.
Could not parse TRIO, so thanks for that, Doofers.
Is CAROUSEL American enough to need the signifier “in US” in the definition? Seems pretty common usage here too.
COD EARLOBES
I did, as I wrote the answer in the wrong place in the grid and that prevented me progressing with the answers leading off it.
I did, as I read “American Gangster turning” and bunged LA straight into the first 2 … then I read the clue properly.
The Hollies from 1965 I think or roundabout that time.
‘Roundabout’… Like it!
I try …I have a set of cryptic clues to musical artist. An example:
Honestly I almost got my Taser out.
Eight on the the pass of acrosses and plenty of downs followed but the NE remained stubbornly bare. Enjoyed the gangster being the definition and not just clueing ‘Al’ – still my first one in but I got there pretty slowly. TOWEL DRY was a fun clue that took me all over the place from General Municipal Boilermakers to even stranger places. All green in 8.51.
I needed 12 minutes for this. I might have achieved my first sub-10 solve in over a week had I not carelessly written AL CAPONE at 1dn instead of 3ac and not immediately noticed my mistake.
Since 2000 Brighton has been part of the City of Brighton and Hove, but I suppose it’s fair enough to clue Brighton as a town.
I have no idea why I convinced myself that the plainly wrong Paignton had to be the answer to 23a.
The SW Tourist Board will be delighted that Paignton is uppermost in your mind.
Most definitely. My sister in law lives in Brighton, and I have NEVER said, “we’re going to Brighton and Hove” to visit her.
It’s twin town’s full name is “Hove actually”
Isn’t that the title of a film?
Also Shakespeare in Hove
Its 😜
The top left held me up but it didn’t really matter because I stupidly put BrightOn and was pink-squared in 10 and a bit. LOI was BRED and before that CYANIDES (I couldn’t make sense of the anagrist for ages) and BETRAYER (nice clue) added a couple of minutes to my time. Thanks to Beck and the Doof. I’m going to pass on the Santa Cruz carousel invitation because the US doesn’t seem all that welcoming to foreign arrivals these days.
10:39
Slightly off the pace if the Quitch (currently 100) is anything to go by – that would normally equate to 9m30s for me. Although I saw the enumeration for the gangster straight away, I just did not twig that the answer was AL CAPONE, indeed I had only five of the acrosses in after the first pass. I, too, was foxed by the French town, until the L checker made it clearer.
Thanks Beck and Doofenschmirtz
I thought this was a top quality puzzle which provided a lot of smiles along the way – EARLOBES, BASELINE and TOWEL DRY being good examples.
Nothing particularly tricky but I messed up the homophone of BRIGHTEN and ended up with a DPS.
Thanks to Doofers and Beck
Stretch at 2d is precise for an engineer. Strain is the amount of elongation of a material when a given force is applied (causing stress)
18:24 Towel-dry MER for me… are you going to remove wet? Yes I’m going to towel-dry! It’s something I often get asked by my friend Yoda.
Trio was far too clever for me but I got there in the end with an alphabet trawl (an unusual device for the QC methinks) and towel dry fell into place with the o for tory.
I’m with Merlin on the need for in US which imho was an intentional misdirector.
Clever puzzle.
Ta D&B
Like others I took time to see TOWEL DRY and EARLOBES, but steadily solved the rest of this neat puzzle.
Many nice easy ones but a few hard to parse and two I couldn’t see at all. Thank you, Doofers; vaguely thought of TOWEL-DRY but NHO it as an expression (verb?), and thought of solder but weld escaped me. It had to be DEBT but NHO “king or queen” bed (king-sized bed, yes, but not without “sized”).
Don’t understand “ride in US” – does the carousel not exist elsewhere? I had CAROUSaL which seemed plausible for “drink freely” but the rest of the clue was over my head. Same with TRIO/RIOT, was nowhere with that. And being in a bit of MERish mood may I suggest (though it had to be ONLY) yard always = yd, never just Y – unless someone can find a context? Anyway, three to the bad …
I agree with you on the lack of any reference for “y=yard”. Mr Collins never reveals his references.
Perhaps he referred to Mr Chambers.
The top half went in without a hitch (apart from earlobes) and, just as the lower half started to slow me down, granddaughter came in and chaos ensued. I got back to it, biffed a few, and finished with EARLOBES and TOWEL DRY but don’t have an accurate time – around 15/16 mins?
A very uneven QC, I thought – from very easy clues through to really rather challenging ones. Maybe it is just me.
Thanks to both.
Note. Both of my last two Becks sent me to the SCC so no complaints today.
Still getting slower. Approximately 15.53. Just not on wavelength today.
8:16 (Hywel ap Caradog becomes King of Gwynedd)
I found this to be on the straightforward side today. Started with AL CAPONE, finished with TRIO.
COD to TOWEL DRY.
Thanks Doofers and Beck
I dread the day when Hywel ap Caradog is clued as “old king” 😳
. . .14 letters, so you can relax 😉
5.32 WOE
Managed to type BRIGHTIN but am pretty sure I was attempting to bung in BRIGHTON so got what I deserved.
Some nice clues in here. Liked the BED thing for K or Qu and EARLOBES.
Thanks Beck and Doofers
Found this one a lot of fun, frequently misinterpreting clues and having to re-approach. Usually with the QCs I can parse the clues immediately, I just cant always think of the answers. Got this down in 17:13
Unfortunately, with crossers -O-E- for 8a I put in —HOLES before properly looking at the clue, and then ended up with EARHOLES, which fitted the definition fine, but I couldn’t parse it. I should have realised that I needed to look again at it. Otherwise, a delightful crossword with some excellent misdirection. Particularly liked TOWEL-DRY and BASELINE. Thanks to Cedric and Beck.
All correct, in the end. Fairly quick then stuck fast on last two. Final PDMs with TRIO and TOWEL DRY – ah, Weld in Tory, of course. Had been led astray trying to think of what the metal workers union might be, doh!
Liked EARLOBES, BETRAYER, DANGLE among others.
A CAROUSEL is just a fairground roundabout/merry-go-round, isn’t it? Maybe different in the USA.
Thanks vm, Doofers.
Indeed, a carousel is a roundabout/merry-go-round. Your comment pretty much explains why USA is in there because Brits typically refer to them as you did.
OK, I think of CAROUSEL as a French word, but interesting that Doofers has a super one in Santa Cruz.
You’re not wrong there …
Wikipedia says “The word carousel derives from the French word carrousel, meaning little battle, a reference to European tournaments of the same name starting in the 17th century. Participants in these tournaments rode live horses and competed in various cavalry skill tests, such as ring jousting. By the end of that century, simple machines were created in which wooden horses were suspended from a spinning wheel mounted on top of a central pole, allowing competitors to practice ring jousting without tiring their horses.”
The article begins with “A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (International English), or galloper (British English) is a type of amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders.”
Galloper – who knew?! Let’s hope the setters don’t!
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carousel
I knew Galloper and believe it’s specific in that the figures/seats are only horses and they have to move up and down too.
Also the rather dubious method of “rebirth” in the 1970’s classic film Logan’s Run.
Now I think of it, Brighton beach used to have a carousel (might still be there), near the Victorian penny arcade, just west of the Palace Pier. And I think they did refer to it as a carousel, perhaps in keeping with the old-timey nature of the penny arcade.
Ditto with TRIO and TOWEL DRY – added 20% to my solve time.
16:51 for the solve. The NE flew in and then everything went quiet. The left side was definitely more of a tussle.
Wasn’t keen on the BETTER clue as I don’t know what “habitue” means and still don’t as the blog doesn’t explain. I would bring up my old “I haven’t done French in 40 years” complaint but as VILE went in from just the checking V; it’s probably moot. Didn’t much enjoy the “moolah” clue for its slang but when I got the answer I thought of Saturday’s discussions around breeding!
Took BRIGHTEN and CAROUSEL carefully as I’ve used the wrong spelling in past puzzles. Was hesitant about bunging in the biffable TRIO (LOI) until I finally saw the parsing.
Thanks to Doofers and Beck
PS Hoping Doofers’ wife hasn’t been researching cyanides too much!
Habitue = frequent visitor / regular (Collins)
Thank-you
AL CAPONE was an easy starter. CYANIDES took a while longer and LOI, TOWEL DRY exercised the neurons somewhat! 8:42. Thanks Beck and Doofers.
It was nice to get back on track with a reasonable time after yesterday’s poor showing, and I managed to come in within target at 8.49. I agree with those that have said what a good puzzle it was, and to my mind it pretty much hits the mark as the definition of what a QC should be. Took care not to fall into the BRIGHTON trap at 23ac, as it is so easy to do when you’re speeding to a finish.
Found this fairly simple, and would have got it in less than 20 minutes if it hadn’t been for struggling with my last two, the pairing of ORCA and STRAIN – didn’t know the OR for gold, and couldn’t at the time think of the ‘melody’ meaning for strain. Thanks for the explanations!
So much to enjoy here and I was off to a speedy start with AL CAPONE. All parsed and completed in 6:23 with my favourites being EARLOBES, DEBT, TOWEL DRY and LOI TRIO. Thanks Doofers
9:53 but wrote brighton instead of brighten, through inattention to the exact wording of the clue
DNF.
As I had never heard of moolah, 15ac was never going to happen.
Thanks for blog.
Hard luck, Mr Numpty. I had the same problem with habitue at 7a, but Mrs Random came to my rescue
18 mins…
The top half went in fairly easily, but I slowed down as I neared the bottom. 25ac “Towel Dry” and 20dn “Trio” took far longer than they should, and I nearly put “Paignton” for 23ac. I never did parse “Trio” properly, so thanks for the explanation.
FOI – 3ac “Al Capone”
LOI – 20dn “Trio”
COD – 1dn “Betrayer”
Thanks as usual!
I’ve been pondering “French town lacks heart”. Does it necessarily have to be a 5 letter town missing its third letter? If a French town starts VI and ends LE couldn’t any number of letters in between be considered its heart? Perusing a list of French towns starting with V turned up Vierville, Vieville, Vienville, Vigeville, Vignevieille, and Villardebelle(among many more!). Oh well, that was a half-hour productively spent.
Wow, I am ever impressed with where thoughts take people on here.
I’ve got some paintwork that needs rubbing down if you are short of other activities!
Sure, sounds like fun. I won’t ask for minimum wage but would appreciate a modest snack and beverage.
I’m fairly sure I have seen multiple letters taken from words (even accounting for two needing to be removed from an even-numbered word). But think of the outrage if expected to digress beyond Paris, Nice, Angers, Caens and one or two of the other French mainstays of the QC!
Agree-scary to think about!
Hooray! Back out of the SCC after a bad start to the week, with 15:21. I was completely baffled by BASELINE until I got to the very helpful blog – thank you!