I thoroughly enjoyed this offering from Asp. It took me 15:15, just about my average time, with the top-right corner being the last to fall.
I was very happy to get the two long anagrams without resorting to paper or other aids. Normally they are my Achilles heel, but today I got lucky and spotted them quite quickly.
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 | Normal colours? (8) |
| STANDARD – A double definition to get us started. The second meaning is a flag, as in “the Royal standard”.
I breezily said “to get us started”. But I didn’t get this until I had most of the crossers. |
|
| 5 | Man attempting to avoid mate? (4) |
| KING – A barely-cryptic definition, referring to chess. | |
| 9 | Scottish poet feels strong emotion (5) |
| BURNS – A second double definition. This was my first one in. | |
| 10 | Fancy picture frames at home (7) |
| IMAGINE – IMAGE (picture) surrounds [frames] IN (at home).
This is an example of the classic setter’s trick where the definition is one part of speech in the clue but a different one in the answer. |
|
| 11 | Legislation’s defects uncovered (3) |
| LAW – |
|
| 12 | Rebel ruins working man (9) |
| INSURGENT – (RUINS)* + GENT (man). | |
| 13 | Television capturing politician in place of worship (6) |
| TEMPLE – TELE (television) containing [capturing] MP (politician).
I would normally have “telly” as a short form of “television”, but it was too long, and “box” was too short. |
|
| 15 | Mother’s labrador rolled in fragrant substance (6) |
| BALSAM – MA’S LAB (Mother’s labrador), reversed [rolled].
This is a word I knew of but would have struggled to define. |
|
| 17 | Make light of recluse being beaten up (9) |
| FLUORESCE – (OF RECLUSE)*
Not a pleasant surface story 🙁 |
|
| 19 | Director of boat company unknown (3) |
| COX – CO (abbreviation for company), X (unknown, as in algebra).
In rowing, the cox steers/directs the boat. |
|
| 20 | Always recalled concealing falsehood to help (7) |
| RELIEVE – EVER (always), reversed [recalled], containing LIE (falsehood). | |
| 21 | Period of substantial growth bearing large flower (5) |
| BLOOM – BOOM (period of substantial growth) including L for large. | |
| 22 | Chase American out of place visited frequently (4) |
| HUNT – H |
|
| 23 | Fundamental transformation of triangle (8) |
| INTEGRAL – (TRIANGLE)*
A very neat whole-word anagram. One to remember, even though I didn’t. Maybe next time… |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Spooner’s Bar opening is another story? (7) |
| SUBPLOT – Spoonerism of PUB (bar) and SLOT (opening).
Apparently the only “spoonerism” that can be reliably attributed to Dr Spooner is “Kinkering Kongs Their Titles Take”, which he announced from the pulpit as the next hymn. All the others have probably been invented just for fun. Seems a bit harsh on the poor man. |
|
| 2 | Remove lead from slender pointer (5) |
| ARROW – Thats “lead” as in “leader”, not as in “pencil”. |
|
| 3 | Sterile lid is developed for drinks manufacturers (12) |
| DISTILLERIES – (STERILE LID IS)* | |
| 4 | Showers included in extra installation (5) |
| RAINS – hidden [included] in |
|
| 6 | Ascetic, in essence, has aloof manner (7) |
| ICINESS – another hidden: I don’t recall seeing just “has” as a containment indicator, but I like it. |
|
| 7 | Reporter’s expressed tentative view about visitor (5) |
| GUEST – Sounds like GUESSED (expressed tentative view).
“Reporter’s” is the clue that this is a sound-based clue. |
|
| 8 | Ready to become union member? A rare gamble I lost (12) |
| MARRIAGEABLE – (A RARE GAMBLE I)*
TWO twelve-letter anagrams? |
|
| 14 | Tearful girl invited into garden cut short relationship (7) |
| MAUDLIN – MAUD (girl invited into garden) + LIN “Come Into The Garden, Maud” is a play by Noël Coward. Which surprised me: I thought it was a song! |
|
| 16 | Saw almost everybody more than anything else (7) |
| MAXIMAL – MAXIM (saw) + AL |
|
| 17 | Unusual rift close to Scottish estuary (5) |
| FIRTH – (RIFT)* + last letter of [close to] |
|
| 18 | This woman topped men for brightness (5) |
| SHEEN – SHE (this woman) + “Sheen” for “brightness” is very much the lingo of shampoo adverts. |
|
| 19 | Church organ is replaced, primarily for singers (5) |
| CHOIR – CH for Church + first letters [primarily] of O |
|
Fun, ha! Asp’s venom got me with the Spoonerism and the Noel Coward play.
Did I enjoy it?
Didn’t know the play from Coward but managed to see MAUDLIN from the clue and checkers. Pretty difficult today I thought. SUBPLOT gave me trouble as I thought the opening was ‘slit’ until I decided to think of a word for ‘another story’ and work backwards. Liked the hidden ICINESS. STANDARD took longer than it should have. Agree about ‘has’ as the containment indicator for ICINESS, probably because it was next to ‘essence’ but don’t have any issues with it. All good in the end.
Thanks D and setter.
The asp did not bite me! Maudlin is the obvious answer, whether you have heard of the play or not, and the Spoonerism is a relatively simple one. It was actually fluoresce that gave trouble, even though I ignored the surface.
Time: 8:39
Yes, but it complicates the parsing no end if you haven’t heard of the play!
Yes, I thought “Come Into The Garden, Maud” was a song too, as indeed it is, based on a poem by Tennyson. Here’s a YouTube link of a recording sung by John McCormack.
13 minutes. Not as difficult as some of Asp’s past offerings, but I still had trouble with a few including, like vinyl, FLUORESCE which was an original take on ‘Make light’. The KING cryptic def also seems obvious now but as usual with cryptic defs, I spent too long trying to see how the non-existent wordplay worked.
Thanks to Doofers and Asp
The song was written in 1857 by Michael Balfe, from a Tennyson poem. It was a music hall staple, notably when sung by Marie Lloyd who made the apparently benign lyrics sound absolutely filthy in a way the censors could never quite explain.
The play is named after the song.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Come_into_the_Garden_Maud
15 minutes with the last 5 spent on finding something to fit the checkers at 1dn S_B_L_T. Eventually I found the word and reverse-engineered from there.
Most of Coward’s play titles are taken from other works, many of them from Shakespeare. I knew the poem and the song and thought of them first, but I have seen the Coward play – or rather playlet, since it’s a short piece, one of three such that comprise his Suite in Three Keys written to mark his final appearances as an actor on the West End stage in 1966.
Fun ha. Really difficult not a fan of Asp who I believe should stick to the 15*15. Gave up after 15 mins having got 4 clues. A puzzle for the experienced solvers a long way off for beginners. Onto tomorrow
A rare sub ten minutes for a puzzle by Asp for me, and much enjoyed. Greatly helped by getting the long anagrams, and as a result home in 9:25 for what, channelling Templar, is a Very Good Day. SUBPLOT was a biff-then-parse (I find Spoonerisms very difficult) and I needed to correct my initial MAXIMum to MAXIMAL, but otherwise no hold-ups.
Many thanks Doofers for the blog.
9:48. Fun, yes. It all went in very nicely. And I enjoyed today’s Spoonerism, so COD to SUBPLOT.
Many thanks to Asp and thank you Doofers for the blog
Nothing breeze-blocked me in this, so was surprised to see that I had somehow ended up in the SCC (20:32).
It feels to me as though there were just a good number of meatier clues that all took a bit of thought to get, so exactly what I hope for as a post-beginner level solver.
I didn’t know the reason for ‘Maud’ or ‘saw’ as ‘maxim’, and I can never get my head round the Spoonerisms, so was glad that the checkers made all those answers fairly straightforward.
Glad to spot FLUORESCE quite quickly but had to go back to correct the spelling once MAUDLIN became inevitable. I have heard of ‘Come into the Garden’ but it was nowhere near my thoughts as I failed to parse. A whopping nine on the first pass of acrosses, including the first three, but harder work lay ahead. All green in 12.32. Good one!
I thought this was going to be a “give up” job. FOI was TEMPLE, and then persevered until they all started to slowly fall into place bar SUBPLOT. Spoonerisms seem to be my kryptonite… Than you Asp, and D for the blog.
A leisurely 22 mins for us -most flowed, a few added minutes.
LOI FLUORESCE, slow on SUBPLOT (heart sinks at Spoonerisms).
Tried Pb for lead. Wrong. Like Mr Statherby, started with MAXIMum.
Consecutive hiddens was a surprise. Like anagrams so enjoyed those.
Thank you Asp and Doofenschmirtz
Well I like Spoonerisms! And this was a cracker. Shame I needed all the checkers to get it 😁
The other hold up was LOI FLUORESCE, where it took me ages to realise that it was an anagram *slaps forehead*. COD INSURGENT.
All done in 06:32 for a Brisk Business Day. Many thanks Asp and Doofers.
DNF. INSURRECT came into my head before INSURGENT, and was confidently entered, despite thoughts of “is there really a meaning of RECT that equals man?”
Thanks Asp and Doofers
I also initally had INSURRECT. Fortunately I immediately doubted it and corrected it before moving on.
12:57
13:28
Slow to see the chestnut STANDARD, which made 1d LOI. Spooner clues are never easy.
COD MARRIAGEABLE
My LOI was MAUDLIN, for two reasons (1) – I had misspelt FLUORESCE as FLOURESCE and (2) NHO the Noel Coward play (also wondered if Maud was spelt MAUDE).
I wondered if there was a bit more to KING than a cryptic, and spent a long time thinking about it. I was trying to think of a word for “trying” with something removed. Toyed with [CHEC]KING for a while but in the end gave it up and accepted it as a cryptic. I guess if I could have made it work the other way, it wouldn’t need the question mark.
10:53 for me, so not too bad.
I was determined to finish this tough puzzle. I made a poor start (1a and 1d were my last two) and I started from the bottom after picking off the few obvious answers. I built up (essential) crossers very slowly and appreciated some very clever clues along the way (plus some MERs like ‘tele’). Even when I knew my time was going to be an embarrassment and I relaxed into it, I still made very slow progress.
I, like some others, biffed MAUDLIN (enticing Maud into the garden never entered my head) and clues like MAXIMAL prior to parsing but I took forever to see the straightforward INTEGRAL because I stupidly mis-counted the number of letters in triangle…….
It does me good to have a serious challenge now and again but I have to agree with Tim – Asp should stop pretending he can set a QC and stick to the 15×15. We all have the choice each day to go there for this sort of challenge if we want it.
I am impressed by some of the quick times above but expect that other ‘normal(?)’ solvers (i.e. steadier solvers) like me will be having their say in the next few minutes and hours (unless, of course, they simply have given up as I was tempted to do).
23:25 – a fairly average time for me, but needed to biff a couple (SUBPLOT, MAUDLIN ). Otherwise a pretty straightforward solve once the long words were in.
Very, very dim of me not to get ICINESS and KING, an embarrassing DNF.
But I found the top half a struggle.
The long clues were OK. FOI BURNS. Liked MAXIMAL, SUBPLOT, & GUEST, among others. MAUDLIN COD, as I did think of the song.
Thanks vm, Doofers.
Another where the hardest were 1a and LOI 1d. Pieced together 8d letter by letter. Oh, LINk, that’s what the “relationship” was, thanks Doofers. MER at television = TELE, surely “screen” (or as you say, box) would have been a better clue?
A good puzzle, but for some reason I was not on the wavelength. 7.45 which is way over my normal time, the last two minutes spent on King would you believe.
Always delighted to see references to John McCormack.
Thanks Doofers and Asp
Phew, what a 57 minute battle that was. The final hold ups being:
ICINESS – it still doesn’t look right even though it is
MAUDLIN – After a long walk and a haircut I recalled ‘Maud’ on my return
FLUORESCE – Despite seeing the anagram it needed all the crossers and pen and paper before this one fell as the LOI. Embarrassing.
As one of the ‘normal solver’ per Blighter above I would say while there were plenty of QC standard clues there were also some hard ones at the other end of the spectrum.
Thanks as always.
I found this easier than the last two days, finishing in 18 minutes (although it seemed quicker). Couldn’t parse MAUDLIN – never thought of the song. I spent an embarrassingly long time on the straightforward KING and on 6dn, having missed the hidden.
FOI – 11ac LAW
LOI – 6dn ICINESS
COD – 10ac IMAGINE
Thanks to Asp and Doofers
Steady going with a couple of tricky ones to to get the grey matter working and a dreaded spoonerism to then cause a brainfreeze.
Started with STANDARD and finished with SUBPLOT in 7.21. COD to MAUDLIN (now that I know of the song/play link).
Thanks to Doofers and Asp
Splendid crossword, as always from Asp. Just over 10 minutes of fun, with MAUDLIN getting my COD.
Thanks Asp, and Doof
An enjoyable puzzle that I thought was tougher than average. I was surprised to find 11.50 had elapsed before stopping the clock, as in solving it felt quicker than that. I think nearly every clue had to be carefully considered with few write ins, hence the time being outside of my target.
I knew the song, but not the play, and dithered over KING due to not getting the attraction of chess, so knowing very little about it. As regards MARRIAGEABLE, I feel I lost that particular gamble on both occasions. My wives probably felt/feel much the same.
FOI BURNS
LOI ICINESS
COD SUBPLOT
TIME 4:23
My thanks to Asp and Doofenschmirtz.
5a King, entered without much confidence but it was OK.
1d Subplot – needed all of the checkers here. I’m not good at Spoonerisms.
14d Maudlin. I remember a song with that line, but NHO the play.
9:17
Background interruptions (daughter, cat) slowed this effort somewhat, but faster than my usual Asp average, which is over 11 minutes, so I can’t be too disappointed. I, too, was slow to finish in the NE corner, taking an age to spot the hidden ICINESS, the simple-in-retrospect KING and the recently-seen homophone GUEST.
Thanks Doofenschmirtz and Asp
I found this one tricky and spoiled it with my POI, STANDARS. A typo, or did I subconsciously type STANDARDS thus overwriting the D? SUBPLOT was LOI. Over eleven minutes WOE. Thanks Asp and Doofers.
Dnf…
Had to happen at some point this year, and this was one got the better of me. Just couldn’t see 1ac “Standard” and 1dn “Subplot”. Eventually got 14dn “Maudlin”, although I struggled to parse it, not knowing the Noel Coward reference.
FOI – 13ac “Temple”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 5ac “King”
Thanks as usual!
This took me longer than average. I got particularly bogged down by the intersecting BALSAM and MAXIMAL. The MARRIAGEABLE anagram took a while to unravel too but I didn’t have a problem with KING and it’s offshoots. My LOI was SUBPLOT in 8:48 Thanks Doofers
18:15
Struggled in the SW and failed to parse MAUDLIN. Then failed to see the hidden ICINESS before finally twigging what was going on in LOI KING.
Enjoyed this puzzle though probably a bit over average time for me. Cuppa quite cool at finish. In common with Doofers, I finished in NE corner. Liked SUBPLOT and BALSAM. Incidentally, my grandmother had tea with Spooner at some point.
COD: SUBPLOT
LOI: GUEST
Thanks Asp and Doofers
I enjoyed this one. I didn’t time it but it probably took me about 45 minutes to complete.
I only got 14d MAUDLIN because I heard Barbara Royle tell her husband Jim not to be “so maudlin”.
I managed to answer every clue correctly though did need some help with a few of the clues.
Are you returning to the fray PW? If so welcome back!
Hello Cedric and thank you.
Yes, I am picking up my pen and dusting off my crossword dictionary after a hiatus. I’m surprised how much I remembered of cryptic crossword solving techniques after an extended period of not doing any.
Looking forward to getting back into it.
Excellent!
Pleased to see you back again, PW.
Good to have you back PW!
Welcome back, PW. You will be RELIEVEd to hear that this solver at least hasn’t progressed very much (apart from today) since you were last here.
Fun? Yes.
Tough? Medium.
Time? Another with background interruptions (workman, husband, dog) so knocking on the door of the SCC at 19:30. Slow in the NE with GUEST, ICINESS and KING being my last three in. Not really sure why ‘king’ was so hard to see apart from the fact that the game of chess doesn’t feature among my interests and when I did an alphabet trawl I omitted ‘k’!
COD to MAUDLIN.
Thanks both
11.00 This felt quite tough. FLUORESCE needed checkers and I biffed LOI KING having failed to understand the clue. Thanks Doofers and Asp.
P.S. There are many actors in the answers. I didn’t spot this. There’s a comment in the puzzle club.
Couldn’t parse MAUDLIN, but otherwise managed to avoid any major problems and finished in 15:17. I had to resort to Notepad to cobble MARRIAGEABLE together but that’s not surprising as I’m pretty terrible at doing anagrams in my head.
Thank you for the blog!
A slow and somewhat tedious solve, only to be undone at the end when the Standard Subplot was lost on me. I’m fairly sure either would have prompted the other, but neither would come to mind, so stumps were thankfully pulled. Invariant
An excellent QC from Asp – thank you, Asp – for our postprandial entertainment. Also enjoyed reading your blog, Doofers, thank you.
Surprised how many people hadn’t heard of “Maud” by Tennyson but did know it as a song or a play. I knew it had later been set to music and had only vaguely heard of the play despite being quite a fan of Noel Coward.
For anyone who knows the poem (or song) there’s a lovely reply to it by Joyce Grenfell containing such lines as:
“Maud won’t come into the Garden,
What makes you think she would ?
Maud won’t come into the Garden,
She HAS read ‘Red Riding Hood!'”
and:
“Maud’s NOT coming into the garden
She wasn’t born yesterday”
There’s a lovely recording of her doing it as a duet with the gentleman (at least, one hopes he is…) continuing to entice her in on YouTube, but I’m no good at links, I’m afraid.
Excellent tip on the Joyce Grenfell! Besides the amusement value of the the song, I love hearing vocal technique from that era.
Really glad you liked it 😊
Great fun. Completed with a smile on my face in 9:32. At least in part due to LOI SUBPLOT.
Maud known from appearances of the song on Clue, I hear it in Barry Cryer’s voice.
Thanks blogger and setter.
I really don’t get on with Asp. Finally defeated by FLOURESCE though I had only four letters to insert. Also by KING which is really annoying!
8.38
Couldn’t unjumble FLUORESCE for an age partly cause I was thinking the definition was “make light of” rather than “make light” even though I knew the “of” was part of the grist.
Thanks Asp/Doofers
I was convinced the name was MAUDE and the adjective was MAUDLING (like the politician Reginald Maudling). I would have finished far sooner if my mind had been open to the possibility that I was mistaken on both counts.
An easier offering than usual from Asp, and was pleased to finish all correct, as I thought, only to discover I’d put INSURRECT too. Knew that song, so no problem with MAUDLIN. LOsI were SUBPLOT and STANDARD. A good puzzle, aimed just right, spoilt only by my carelessness in not parsing properly.
A lovely puzzle but had to reveal LOI MAUDLIN… and then couldn’t parse it (thanks D). COD SUBPLOT (I do love a spoonerism!) but also enjoyed working out FLUORESCE. Tricky but fair. Thanks Asp.
22:58, hello club members! My skills have deserted me this week. Some great clues, and the long anagrams were easy – but much stalling out on my part made it seem a bit of an ordeal. Just like old times, really, with KING, of all things, needing an alpha trawl before I could see the obvious.
FOI BURNS, LOI KING (apparently I wasn’t the only one to be a bit baffled, how reassuring), COD FLUORESCE.
Thanks Asp and Doof.
Excellent puzzle. 10:56. LOI was the fairly easy KING – should have been thinking of chess almost immediately, but for some reason didn’t.
FLUORESCE held up an otherwise enjoyable romp