I thought I was on for a real flyer when the first six across clues went in straight away, but then reality kicked in. I still ended up finishing in a speedy-for-me 8:40, which as I write has me in 14th place of 16. So I suspect that this one will be sub-100 on the QUITCH.
The one clue that struck me as really tricky was MIDSUMMER, but once I got it it became my COD. Odd how often that happens, isn’t it? I suspect I’ve missed something in the clue for HILL.
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 | Line priest’s taken unconventionally (6) |
| STRIPE – (priest)* | |
| 4 | Go by mountain route (4) |
| PASS – A double definition | |
| 9 | Having money for cleaner (7) |
| SOLVENT – Another double definition.
This clue could perhaps have done with a question mark, as not all solvents are cleaning products. |
|
| 10 | Arab perhaps runs in stockings? (5) |
| HORSE – R for runs (from cricket) in HOSE (stockings).
Think of “hose and doublet”. One of those words that has a real world definition and a separate “only in crosswords” definition. See also NEAT to mean “cow”, and I’m sure others can think of more examples. Perhaps we could compile a list. |
|
| 11 | Preach, yet strangely original (9) |
| ARCHETYPE – (preach yet)* | |
| 12 | Outstanding nobleman killing king (3) |
| DUE – Take DUKE (nobleman) and remove K for king. | |
| 13 | Spice Maggie added to fruitcake (6) |
| NUTMEG – NUT (fruitcake, looney) + MEG (Maggie).
Both Maggie and Meg are diminuitives of Margaret. |
|
| 15 | Myth of celebrity (6) |
| LEGEND – Our third double definition. | |
| 17 | Pawn surrounded by chess attack (3) |
| PIN – P (pawn, from chess notation) + IN (surrounded by).
To “pin” an opponent’s piece in chess is to prevent the piece from moving because if it were moved the opponent would be in check. Modern chess notation no longer uses “P” for pawn: all the other pieces get to keep their letters, but pawn moves are just the destination square. But I learned the older “descriptive” style, where “P-K4” started many a game. |
|
| 18 | When days are longer minute by minute perhaps? (9) |
| MIDSUMMER – The middle two letters of SUMMER [mid-summer] is “MM”. M can be an abbreviation for minute. Put M by M, you get “MM”. Hence “minute by minute” can be “mid-summer”.
Phew, that was convoluted. And no, I did not parse that when I was doing the puzzle. But now I have parsed it I like it a lot. |
|
| 21 | Ripped, pierced by hard, sharp object (5) |
| THORN – TORN (ripped) including [pierced by] H for hard (as in pencil lead designations). | |
| 22 | Revised a target for rowing competition (7) |
| REGATTA – (a target)* | |
| 23 | About to leave icy high ground (4) |
| HILL – C (circa, about) removed from CHILL (icy).
I have two quibbles with this clue. Firstly, “chill” and “icy” are not synonyms. “Icy” is an adjective. “Chill” is almost always a verb or a noun, except in the modish usage of being “chill about” something. Even in that last case, you couldn’t substitute “icy” for “chill”. And secondly, “hill” doesn’t work for me as “high ground”. The top of a hill can be high, but if all of it is high, is it really a hill? Normally when I have this many issues with a clue, it ends up being because I’ve missed how the clue works. I look forward to finding out what I’ve missed. Edit: chill = icy in “a chill wind”. Thanks to Guy du Sable for that. |
|
| 24 | In favour of suitable gains (6) |
| PROFIT – PRO (in favour of), FIT (suitable). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Give strength to us in disgrace (7) |
| SUSTAIN – US (from the clue) in STAIN (disgrace). | |
| 2 | France, say, removing pub, a survival from the past (5) |
| RELIC – Remove PUB from REPUBLIC (France, say). | |
| 3 | Sort out beforehand perimeter being confused with end (12) |
| PREDETERMINE – (perimeter + end)* | |
| 5 | Shorten a game (7) |
| ABRIDGE – A + BRIDGE (game)
A classic. |
|
| 6 | Observed spoken part of play (5) |
| SCENE – Sounds like (spoken) “seen” (observed). | |
| 7 | Support Remain (4) |
| STAY – A fourth double definition. | |
| 8 | See grub here cooked to follow cold fast food (12) |
| CHEESEBURGER – C for cold plus (see grub here)*.
As soon as I saw the word “cooked” I was looking for an anagram. I did a quick count of the letters in “see grub here”, realised I was one short and then read the rest of the clue and – lo and behold! – found the missing letter and instructions on where it had to go. |
|
| 14 | Kitchen stuff can frustrate (7) |
| TINFOIL – TIN (can), FOIL (frustrate). | |
| 16 | Sleeping porter missing his third shift finally (7) |
| DORMANT – DOORMAN (porter) minus the third letter [missing his third] + the last letter [finally] of |
|
| 17 | Fall quiet with irritation (5) |
| PITCH – P for quiet (from music) + ITCH (irritation).
“Pitch” meaning “fall” is almost always followed by “forward”. |
|
| 19 | Concealed five hundred on Noah’s ship (4) |
| DARK – D (five hundred, in Roman numerals) on ARK (Noah’s ship). | |
| 20 | Second time I note recurring image (5) |
| MOTIF – MO (second, as in “just a mo”), T for time, I, F (a musical note). | |
11 mins. The RHS went in as fast as I can type (not v.fast on touchscreen) but the left put up some resistance, several of the definitions eluding me at first. SUSTAIN, STRIPE, SOLVENT, HILL, PITCH all tricky.
A game of 2 halves. Thanks Joker and Doof
33 minute DNF and another week smashed to bits.
Put PAN for PIN and took forever to get LEGEND, DORMANT, PITCH and CHILL.
Will someone who can do these wretched puzzles please tell me where I am going wrong? What do you have that I so desperately need? I feel thoroughly defeated by this at the moment and have no confidence at all.
I’ll now spend somewhere between 1 and 2 hours on the 15 x 15, with absolutely no hope of finishing.
I can’t speak for everyone here but I suspect that what most have that you seem not to, is enjoyment. It’s much easier to get good at something you enjoy because you focus on the *process*, and the end result is incidental. Learn to celebrate improvements, even small ones, and embrace difficulty as merely part of the adventure. You will improve without even noticing it – or caring!
Doing crosswords is a hobby, and if you can’t enjoy your hobbies there’s not a lot to be said for them.
(For the record, as I am a rare contributor here, I have been doing QCs about as long as you, often don’t finish, but always read the blogs as this is a great community and reading how others have fared is a big part of how I enjoy what you might consider my abject failures!)
Thanks for your advice. It is very much appreciated. I will try to find that elusive enjoyment. I did enjoy cryptics when I began, but this ebbed away when I found that I wasn’t improving as I hoped. It was a huge blow when I found that attempting the 15 x 15 did nothing to improve my skills.
Thanks again. 👍
Found this rather straightforward except for the SW corner, which accounted for more than half of my 23:24.
Never got anywhere parsing MIDSUMMER, but it was my first thought, and I wrote it in with a shrug once a few crosses supported it. I don’t share in the harrumphing about CHILL, though I was slow to get it. On top of a chill wind, a chill reception seems commonplace enough. On reflection, I don’t see why one wouldn’t go with ‘chilly’, but I feel people often don’t.
Thanks to Joker and Doof!
A relatively approachable one, given that it’s from Joker, taking me 14:15. Fortunately PIN is one of two chess attacks that I know of, the other one being “fork” (which is where a piece threatens two enemy pieces at once, such that only one can be saved). I expect that there are others that I haven’t heard of, possibly even as many as six.
Thank you for the blog!
PASS got me started and, despite finding it slightly sticky early on, I picked up speed and reached four clues to go shortly after the 20 minute mark. Trouble was, those four clues (PITCH, HILL, TINFOIL and PIN) were all interconnected down in the SW corner and they combined to add nearly 10 minutes to my time. As is so often the case for me I only needed one breakthrough, but finding that breakthrough took a long time.
Total time ~30/31 minutes.
Many thanks to Doofer and Joker.
P.S. As a chess player myself, I feel so stupid to have struggled so much with PIN.
15 mins but have to join the Pan crew on the naughty step. Flew through the top half. Lots of great clues: Tinfoil & Dormant, in particular. Got many of the longs ones at first glance. Just hoping the anagrist was there. Thanks Doof and Joker
Biffed Midsummer from the MM but otherwise found that clue impenetrable .. NHO Pin .. Not keen on Hill either! Altogether too many obscure clues to properly enjoy this QC.
FOI 4a Pss
LOI23a Hill
COD 10a Horse – but with the better alternative parse
Not convinced about the MM, what about the other letters? Midsummer is when days get longer only by a minute or so. Hence the ‘perhaps’.
Yes, failed on PIN which was a blank for me, making TINFOIL and HILL very hard to see. Agree on doubtful MIDSUMMER and the Icy thing – I was trying to remove the C from Icy, not much help.
12:23
LEGEND was my LOI – sometimes a double definition can be very elusive.
COD to MIDSUMMER.
Thanks Doofers and Joker
Ipad playing up wouldn’t have got MIDSUMMER or PIN in any event
3 out of 3 so far this week so not looking forward to Thursday.
Went down the Arab horse and stockings route.
easier than usual for the Joker
17:30
A few trickier ones. Failed to parse HILL and MIDSUMMER, although that was eminently biffable. Also struggled with the innocuous SCENE.
Had the opposite experience to many in that I found this a lot harder than usual, and far from the first six going straight in, I didn’t get any until the sixth. Things started to improve after that, but having no checkers near the top wasn’t ideal. Anyway, made it through in 27:41, so it was easier than yesterday’s 15×15 (as expected of course), which I’ve been working on in spare moments at school today, and still have a lot to get. Thanks Joker and Doofers.
Got 11 on 15 x 15 in 2.5 hours! Says it all really. Probably not a record, but that’s 3 hours on cryptics today. I must be mad 🤣
That puzzle was very difficult, it’s rated 168 in the SNITCH. A solver who can normally solve the 15 x 15 in 30 minutes will take close to an hour on this one.
I was lulled into a false sense of security by the previous championship puzzle which I found a little easier.