A most enjoyable puzzle from Juji this morning, his 8th since he joined the setter’s roster earlier this year and the third I have had the pleasure of blogging – I see I did his last one too, on 4 October (QC 3111), and I very much enjoyed that one too.
Some sparkling clues, some good variety in the wordplay with most of the usual types of QC clue represented, a superb hidden at 2D which gets my COD, and no obscure words to frustrate one – what’s not to like? It took me 8.55 to complete, which for me counts as fast, so I shall expect some rapid times. How did everyone else get on?
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (abc)* indicates an anagram of abc, ~ marks insertion points and strike-through-text shows deletions.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Engrossed in deaf cats barking (10) |
| FASCINATED
(in deaf cats)*, the anagram indicator being “barking”. And always good to get 1A straight off. |
|
| 8 | Significant Swiss folk hero, in Geneva originally (7) |
| TELLING
TELL (Swiss folk hero William Tell) + IN (from the clue) + G (Geneva “originally”, ie first letter of). |
|
| 9 | Reset switch (5) |
| RELAY
A DD. The first meaning caused me to think a bit, but if one can have “set/lay the table” one can presumably have “reset/relay the table”. |
|
| 10 | Scottish landowner ultimately overlooked den of wild animal (4) |
| LAIR
LAIRD (Scottish landowner) with the last letter deleted, given by “ultimately overlooked”. |
|
| 11 | Place to land aircraft here briefly organised with pilot (8) |
| HELIPORT
(her pilot)*, with her in the anagram fodder coming from here “briefly”, ie last letter deleted, and the anagram indicator being “organised”. I was held up here, being slow to realise that “aircraft” was not an aeroplane here. In fact one can use aircraft for helicopters, airships (including blimps), gliders, hang-gliders, hot air balloons and these days drones as well. |
|
| 13 | Burdened boy with case for excursion (5) |
| LADEN
LAD (boy) + EN (case for, ie first and last letters of, ExcursioN). |
|
| 14 | One playing in the morning in Germany (5) |
| GAMER
AM (in the morning) inserted into (given by the simple “in”) GER (short for Germany). GER is a recognised abbreviation for Germany, especially in international contexts like sports (eg FIFA) and other international organisations. It is also the official International Olympic Committee (IOC) code for Germany. The choice of international abbreviations for countries is – needless to say – steeped in politics. The issue first came to the fore in a serious way between the two World Wars, and the basic problem was that if every country had a code coming from their own national language, codes like MAG (Magyarország/Hungary) or SUO (Suomi/Finland) would be hard to identify. So the League of Nations suggested that the default languages from which the abbreviations would be drawn should be French (the diplomatic language of the era) and English (the language of the main superpower, the UK). And thus for Germany the abbreviation was GER, as ALL (from the French Allemagne) was deemed likely to be rather confusing. More recently, international bodies have become more sensitive to the preferences of individual countries, and it is more usual to allow a country to choose its own abbreviation. Thus Germany’s internet domain is .de, from of course Deutschland. |
|
| 16 | University don of leprosy regularly lost volunteers (8) |
| PROFFERS
PROF (for professor or university don) + FERS (every other letter of oF lEpRoSy, the indicator being “regularly lost”). A bit sneaky of Juji to include the “of” in the words that every other letter is to be taken from; I didn’t spot this at first, and wondered where the second F was to come from. But the rather stilted surface, not I think Juji’s smoothest, gave away that something was happening and encouraged me to look more closely. |
|
| 17 | Open a French party (4) |
| UNDO
UN (French for a) + DO (party). Undo as in undoing/opening birthday presents (which I was doing last Sunday). |
|
| 20 | Additional painting by European returned (5) |
| EXTRA
ART (painting) + X (by, as in “four by two, 4 x 2”) + E (European), all reversed (“returned”). |
|
| 21 | Considered shutting hotel in difficult time (7) |
| THOUGHT
T~OUGH (difficult) with H (hotel) inserted into it (the inclusion given by “shutting”), + T (time). |
|
| 22 | Scared, flee bird enclosure (7,3) |
| CHICKEN RUN
CHICKEN (scared) + RUN (flee). |
|
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Gross gangster Capone causing death (5) |
| FATAL
FAT (gross) + AL (Al Capone, Crosswordland’s favourite gangster). |
|
| 2 | Some crooks allied for theft ventured out (7,5) |
| SALLIED FORTH
A very fine hidden, in crookS ALLIED FOR THeft, with the hidden indicator being “some”. My COD. |
|
| 3 | Bird is consuming odd bits of Brie (4) |
| IBIS
I~S (from the clue) containing (ie “consuming”) BI (“odd bits of”, ie every other letter of, BrIe). |
|
| 4 | Fought guard desperately protecting earl (6) |
| ARGUED
(guard)*, the anagram indicator being “desperately”, containing (ie “protecting”) E (Earl). E for Earl is not as far as I know a standard abbreviation, and there is no indicator to tell one to take its first letter, but even so it is clear what Juji wants here. |
|
| 5 | Desires — wanting top pay (8) |
| EARNINGS
YEARNINGS (desires), with the first letter deleted (“wanting top”). |
|
| 6 | Renovated large manor of departmental boss (5,7) |
| FLOOR MANAGER
(large manor of)*, with the anagram indicator being “renovated”. And memories for those of us of a certain age of Mr Rumbold in Are you being served? |
|
| 7 | Shellfish gobbled up by egret’s young (6) |
| OYSTER
A reverse hidden, in egRETS YOung, and a very neat indicator for both the reverse and the hidden in “gobbled up”. |
|
| 12 | Final has to be rearranged immediately (2,1,5) |
| IN A FLASH
(final has)*, with the anagram indicator being “to be rearranged” |
|
| 13 | Drank apple rum with daughter (6) |
| LAPPED
(apple)*, with the anagram indicator being “rum”, + D (daughter). |
|
| 15 | Sensual books penned by Scandinavian fellow (6) |
| EROTIC
ER~IC (representative Scandinavian man) with OT (books) inserted (given by “penned”). The choice of which name setters use as the archetypal representative of a nation or people – for example Ian as the standard Scotsman and Liam as an Irishman, and only yesterday we had Anders as a representative Scandinavian – is one of those mysteries of Crosswordland that one basically only learns through experience. Eric is not definitively or uniquely a Scandinavian name – setters often reference Eric Morecambe, for example – but I think Juji has in mind here Eric the Red (Eiríkr Þorvaldsson Rauði in old Icelandic), a 10th century Icelander who earned his nickname due to his red hair and beard, and also perhaps his fiery temper. He is best known for founding the first European settlement in Greenland, in about 985 AD; his son Leif Ericson is credited as being the first European to set foot in North America. (He was also a consummate salesman, as, having observed how hard it was to get people to immigrate to Iceland due to its chilly name, he named his new colony Greenland on purpose to encourage people to join him and to hide the fact that it was much more marginal land than Iceland. It worked, and many boatloads of settlers followed him – by the year 1100 AD the population was well over 2,500. But the land was difficult to wrest a living from and the Norse population died out completely by the end of the 15th century). There are other old Scandinavian Erics, including the splendidly named Eric Bloodaxe, King of Norway in the late 10th century, and Eric the Victorious, King of Sweden at about the same time, but I doubt Juji had either of these two in mind. |
|
| 18 | Frequently become less harsh after leader’s gone (5) |
| OFTEN
SOFTEN (become less harsh), with the initial letter deleted (“leader’s gone”). |
|
| 19 | See disheartened side be defeated (4) |
| LOSE
LO (see) + SE (side “disheartened”, ie with all but the first and last letters deleted). |
|
A leisurely 17:49. So happy that yesterday’s irksome font was no more I floated somewhat dreamily through this and savoured every moment.
I liked HELIPORT and needed help to see where the extra F in PROFFERS came from.
Much enjoyed, thank to Juji and to Cedric for his usual entertaining and informative blog.
I was so excited to use my newly met Scandinavian friend Anders, only to find it was Eric instead.
Look at it as gaining a friend…. : )
This was a nice puzzle for speedsters – so many easy clues, starting with fascinated. Sallied forth and chicken run were both quite good. By the time I got to proffers, I was in full biff mode – I was university don and volunteers, and that’s all I needed.
Time: 5:24
9 minutes. I was doing even better until I came up against the marauding Viking; Sven was my preferred ‘Scandinavian fellow’ du jour. Thanks for the potted biography of Eric the Red and the anecdote about Greenland. Like Cedric, I liked the use of ‘aircraft’ in the def for HELIPORT and the SALLIED FORTH hidden, stretching across four words.
Thanks to Cedric and Juji
Not too tough, very enjoyable. 12min.
Thought I’d found a jorum in “gretsy” for a type of shellfish, before the penny dropped that “up” in “gobbled up” meant inversion.
The hidden in 2d was fantastic.
Thanks Juji and Cedric. Enjoyed the notes on country codes and Erics.
7:25
16ac is not ‘stilted’, it’s incoherent; the editor should have said something to Juji. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen E for ‘earl’ in 15x15s.
13:13 Argued over erotic earnings sums up my issues…
Ta CAJ
I felt I made heavy weather of what was a fairly gentle puzzle which I’m going to blame entirely on my anagram hat doing a runner. I’m actually rather embarrassed about how long it took me to work out ARGUED from ‘guard + e’.
Started with TELLING and finished with EROTIC in 7.49. COD to SALLIED FORTH.
Thanks to Cedric for his very interesting blog and Juji for the puzzle.
An enjoyable QC on the easier end of the scale for me – 15mins.
I found the word play easy to follow and the clues were fun.
Despite getting 2D, yet again I missed the hidden. Has to be my COD for hiding the answer so well.
Thanks Cedric and Juji
Many thanks, Mr Statherby: the blog as enjoyable as the puzzle. But I think you have a typo in 7D, namely “reserve” instead of “reverse”.
Oops! Thank you, and now corrected.
13.04, for us anything near non teens is very pleasing.
A lot to like in this, and we did. We echo the vote for 2D as COD.
..and on this semi high, we look forward to tomorrow’s crossword moment when we check out the least scary 15x 15 (as assessed by the Snitch). This is our way of putting a toe in the water (as suggested by a kind fellow blogger some time back).
How have others crossed that bridge…?
Thank you Cedric Statherby for a delightful blog and Juji for a most enjoyable crossword.
. . .slowly, and with great care 😉
yes…the slowly bit we have in hand! No problem there….
however, beware the troll beneath …. 🙈
A few thoughts on 15 x 15:
1. Forget the time it takes. I have never got close to a quick solve and just focus on trying to finish.
2. The hardest part is getting a foothold. Don’t worry if it takes ages to get any head of steam with your solve. I’ve found that answers tend to come in bunches and persistence pays off.
3. There are few write ins but perhaps more truly cryptic clues requiring lateral thought. Often these are phrases which you can work out with a few checkers.
4. There are generally longer answers, which means that you can often build an answer up in bits by spotting some of the word play and then letting that percolate in your subconscious.
The puzzle in The Times today would be a good one to have a look at. Unfortunately you don’t get the answer until next week, but it was a decent challenge without being impossible.
Good luck with it! Completing a 15 x 15 is far more satisfying than finishing a QC.
Thank you for taking the time to set out the above. Really appreciated.
As for the lateral thought bit, yes, we find there are way more instances of the what I call, ‘cousin once removed’ clues, where the answer is one step away from the lateral position… the PDM is further down the track. For me, it is unfortunately often also a temporal gap…. a sudden dawning causing one to wake up in the early hours.. long before the traditional dawn has done it’s thing..
And percolating… yes, perfect description. Coffee in hand helps that along, too : ) Again, thank you.
PS Is that a llama?
Also, you might find that your QC times worsen, because you start to ‘over read’ the more simple clues.
PPS Hiding in a field of sheep ?
👍
not sure where to add..so apologies if x 2…
my llama query… I am now wondering – alpaca?
Meanwhile childhood memory nudges me, if it had two heads it would be a ‘pushmi- pullyu’ – decades since I have thought of that… again, thank you. What a welcome thought..
12:26
Had AEROPORT for a bit which held up EARNINGS and LOI RELAY.
Nice blog, esp country trivia. The UK changed domain name from .gb to .uk, and it was so complex no other country has been allowed to do it. My theory is that it was a clause that allowed the Good Friday peace agreement to be finally signed.
Bluetooth was another famous Scandinavian who is now famous across the globe for reasons that would have been very hard to explain to him in the 10c.
Sorry, Merlin, that’s not entirely accurate. .gb, although originally assigned in the mid-1980s, was never widely used and was quickly superseded by .uk. Having fallen into disuse by the 1990s, when the internet began to expand beyond government and universities, the .gb domain was finally closed to new registrations in 1996, well before the 1998 Good Friday agreement. Whilst it may have been confusing to some at the time that one country should have two domain names, there was never a complex, planned changeover as you appear to suggest.
In any case, the GFA was not intended to influence abbreviations relating to the UK. It took another 23 years before our vehicle stickers changed from GB to UK and sadly we still have GBP for our currency and Team GB in the Olympics – even though the athletes are selected by a body called UK Sport!
It is even worse if you are a cricketer, where the UK’s national sides (in all formats) are not even called GB but play under the name England. Mind you that has not stopped them being captained by people from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, South Africa, etc.
My error rate on the Leaderboard has absolutely spiralled (16 from 55 before play today) and I’m now individually checking every answer before I push the button. This strategy got away to a bad start on the Concise this morning due to actually having two wrong answers. I don’t know if I dare look at the Leaderboard tomorrow.
However, it worked fine here. I didn’t have any typos as it happened, and my Snitch average will suffer (I was 25 seconds over my current figure), but the absence of pinks made it worthwhile.
I thought this was generally an excellent puzzle, the exception being my LOI, which I biffed. I totally concur with Cedric with regard to that one.
FOI FASCINATED
LOI PROFFERS
COD HELIPORT
TIME 5:06
4:43. Nice one. LOI FASCINATED, having wasted some time not seeing it before coming back after I’d got the checkers. I too thought 16A rather clunky and I never knew cats could bark. Thanks Juji for the puzzle and Cedric for the excellent blog. I was pleased to be reminded of Eric Bloodaxe and interested in the origin of Greenland…. and also pleased with my total time of this week’s 6 QCs of 27:29.
8 after 20 and 16 after 30. I think I got all the easier ones bar Laden and Lapped.
Finished all correct, with several not fully parsed e.g. EROTIC, LADEN, EXTRA, RELAY, OYSTER (missed reverse hidden). An enjoyable puzzle.
Liked FATAL, SALLIED FORTH, among others.
Thanks vm, Cedric.
A fun puzzle. The LHS whizzed in and I was slower on the right but all present and correct in a relaxed 13.40 with LOI EROTIC.
COD: SALLIED FORTH
Thanks to Juji and Cedric.
NOTE. THANKS TO JOHNINTERRED.
Thanks to the many posters who added to the discussion of website problems on yesterday’s blog.
John has solved the problems with missing avatars and the ‘lost’ header on the TfT blogs. All is now as it was before. Sincere thanks to JohnI for his quick and effective response.
👏🏻 🥂 🍻
Which reminds me – The Times site seemed back to normal today. Juji’s name in the bottom left corner, proper font, no messing with grid sizes. Thank-you to whoever corrected that back.
It is all thanks to Johninterred (see above and new comments in yesterday’s blog).
Pretty quick for me, and all parsed except LOI OYSTER, which I only realised was a hidden after putting in, though I must admit to skimming over the superfluous F in PROFFERS by thinking there must be some obscure dictionary reference to ‘proff’ rather than ‘prof’.
Usually at a parkrun around now, but having a welcome week off (or more) to allow a troublesome hip some time to recuperate. Anyway, 13:00 for me. Thanks Juji and Cedric.
ParkRuns and crosswords sound very much like my weekends too. Not at the same time, though, to be clear.
15:40 for me today. Happy with that. Biffed in SALLIED FORTH and never spotted it in the clue.
When Galspray does the Saturday blog we have a little parksolve competition although there haven’t been too many takers of late.
4.24
Sub John and Phil? Wowsers. Keep checking for those typos Phil! 🙂 However I respectively submit for evidence my somewhat tardier efforts earlier in the week to dispel any doubts about my place in the QC top table.
Not sure why this one flew in but liked it. Favourite was FLOOR MANAGER. Great blog as always Cedric.
Lovely puzzle and super blog. Really interesting info about international abbreviations for countries. Thought 15D was a reference to Terry Jones’ Viking until I remembered he was Erik – wrong connection leading to correct answer. Thanks very much Juji and Cedric.
I could only think of Erik the Viking but as you say K-ending. Level 9 Computing made a BBC text adventure game based on the book which I’m fairly sure I managed to complete
A straightforward 16.13 with EROTIC as LOI after rejecting Bjorn and Benny from ABBA.
‘x’ for ‘by’ was a new one for me. Now noted.
Thanks Juji, and Cedric for the blog.
Another day out from the SCC #5 – well done. I’m sure you figured it out that if x=by then they can also be “times” which I’ve seen cunningly disguised as a reference to (the) Times
23.09, so not finding this as easy as most. RELAY, EROTIC, LOSE, PROFFERS all took some pondering. SALLIED FORTH definitely COD.
From FASCINATED to CHICKEN RUN in 7:36. Had to ponder RELAY for a moment. Good hidden at 2d! Thanks Juji and Cedric.
18 mins…
My final two: 2dn “Sallied Forth” and 16ac “Proffers”, took a chunk of time but the rest was enjoyable. Ended up with a couple of pink squares for 19dn “Lose” as I jotted it down and then forgot to type it in while pondering over the latter two.
FOI – 10ac “Lair”
LOI – 16ac “Proffers”
COD – 2dn “Sallied Forth” – very well hidden.
Thanks as usual!
Very pleasent. Thanks to Juji and Cedric. I had the same quibbles at 9a and 16a, so thanks Cedric for clearing those up. Some lovely smooth surfaces, I always judge them by whether you can visualise someone actually saying it word for word, and there are several in it that meet that criterion. Particularly 19d, as a Southampton fan Ive been there and (literally) got the T-shirt.
8:25
I was one that did not see FASCINATED straight off, and it was only after entering all of the checkers (including an incorrect first letter – TOTAL rather than FATAL) that I could correctly organise the remaining letters. However, most of the puzzle was reasonably paced, and a Quitch of 92 currently, seems about right.
Thanks for the instructive blog, Cedric, and for the puzzle, Juji.
8:44 for the solve. My dad was an Eric and he was definitely not Scandinavian. COD to the SALLIED FORTH hidden
Thanks to Cedric and Juji
7.39. Nice and gentle.
14:13
Fairly straightforward but took a while to see my Scandinavian fellow was Eric. LOI RELAY.
14:17
Got most clues, first time of asking. Would have been quicker, if I had not stopped to admire the super yacht sailing out of Poole Harbour.
LOI Erotic, once I got the C from Chicken, I stopped trying to stretch Dane, Finn, Lapp over OT!
Thanks all
5.32 A biff fest today for my sixth best time. Fortunately I had second thoughts about LOI RALLY and corrected it to RELAY. Thanks Cedric and Juji.
11:33 for us, a bit faster than average but nowhere near PB territory. Enjoyable on the whole, perhaps Juji ran out of time with PROFFERS – you can’t really expect them all to be as good as OYSTER. My COD. Great blog as always, Cedric, our thanks to you and Juji.
Pleasantly surprised by an easier than usual QC. Some amusing and clever clues eg 1d 2d 13a 7d.
FOI 1a fascinated
LOI 21a Thought
COD 7d Oyster
Off to try the Sunday special…
Much easier than yesterday for me. Nice steady solve with no particular hold-ups. Liked the hidden SALLIED FORTH which, for once, I spotted straight away. Many thanks Cedric (interesting stuff about Eric) and Juji.
8:35 so faster than usual, and I confess to having made it a bit of a biff fest. So went back over the clues, and there is much to enjoy. SALLIED FORTH emerged from the crossers so I had to appreciate it retrospectively, as well as the very smooth OYSTER. I liked the deaf cats, bizarre surface images are catnip to me.
Thanks to Juji and Cedric, great informative blogging as usual, and a belated happy birthday to you!
9:39 here, and a very pleasant way to kick off the weekend. Anyone remember the 1980s film Eric the Viking, or am I showing my age?
Thank you for the blog!
14:13 here, struggled to get any sort of flow. COD to SALLIED FORTH, and props to Cedric for the parsing of “re-lay the table”, which I was nowhere near.
Thanks to Juji and Cedric.
Help! I’ve bought Saturday’s edition of The Times, but I can’t find any Quick Cryptic. Where in the paper is the Saturday crossword?
It’s not in the printed paper; only available online on a Saturday. Try
https://www.thetimes.com/puzzles/crossword/times-quick-cryptic-no-3147-882ft7dcb
Ah, thank you Mr S. Thought I must be stupid not being able to locate it!
This has been a strange week. Trying to get used to my first pair of verifocals hasn’t helped, and I certainly wasn’t looking forward to a challenge from Juji to round it off. . . but 18mins seems fairly respectable judging by others. A 1d/1ac start and a steady enough solve thereafter saw me safely home, with only Proffers, and the Erotic Gamer (🤭), preventing an even quicker time. CoD just has to be 2d, Sallied Forth, in recognition of Juji’s skill. Invariant
Ruined a decent ish time with a careless OYSTRR. I think Phil must be catching.
Nice puzzle (with one exception 😉) and blog, thanks Cedric and Juji.