A very nice puzzle by Shay for us this morning which took me 11:00 exactly, both a welcome relief after a tough week in QC-land (my slowest combined time for all 6 puzzles for several months), and a pleasant surprise, because I have often found Shay one of the more challenging setters. But we have a puzzle here that I found entertaining, at times quite tricky – I was well misled on a number of clues before seeing how they worked – but always fair. Thank you Shay!
There is an abundance of anagrams, with 6 clues either straight anagrams or containing one as part of the wordplay, and in addition, I think the puzzle is notable for the brevity of many of the clues – many are admirably concise.
There is one geographical reference which uses an old and now superseded name for a city – cue a discussion on when a name drops out of use and out of common GK – but I think/hope it should be getable by most people.
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 | Extremely comical and always smart (6) |
| CLEVER – CL (“extremely”, ie first and last letters of, ComicaL) + EVER (always). | |
| 4 | Each leader leaving best mate in car (6) |
| ESTATE – Constructed by removing the first letter (“each leader leaving”) of the two words This one caused quite a hold-up as I tried various ways of unravelling the clue, including E for “each leader”, and then trying to find a word for best mate to insert in (or delete from) a word for a car. In short, I was all over the place until the penny dropped. |
|
| 8 | Storm ripped flap (7) |
| TORNADO – TORN (ripped) + ADO (flap).
I initially thought that flap gave just DO, so I was not entirely sure I understood where the A came from until I remembered Shakespeare’s play “Much ado about nothing”. |
|
| 10 | Established principle advanced by Isle of Man (5) |
| AXIOM – A (advanced, as in A level exams) + X (by, as in multiplication, or a 4 by 2 piece of wood) + IOM (abbreviation for the Isle of Man). | |
| 11 | Locate quote for auditors (4) |
| SITE – Sounds like CITE (quote), with the homophone indicated by “for auditors”. | |
| 12 | Sharp detective sat, disheartened, in court (8) |
| DISTINCT – A 4-part IKEA clue, the construction being DI (detective) + ST (sat, “disheartened”, ie with the middle letter removed) + IN (from the clue) + CT (standard abbreviation for court).
Another very concise clue, with lots going on in just 6 words. And another one where I was way off in my first attempt to unravel it, looking to put a detective (perhaps from one of the Sharp novels?) into C~T. |
|
| 14 | Judges and censors wrongly concealing identity (9) |
| CONSIDERS – ID (identity) inserted into (censors)*, the anagram indicator being “wrongly”, and the insertion indictor being “concealing”. | |
| 18 | Vile mead drunk in the Middle Ages (8) |
| MEDIEVAL – (vile mead)*, the anagram indicator being “drunk”.
A very smooth surface. And however vile the mead was, I suspect it was preferable to drinking the water. |
|
| 20 | Piece of land in Israeli port (4) |
| ACRE – A DD.
The city of Acre is now known as Akko (in Hebrew) or Akka (in Arabic), and is one of the oldest settlements in the world, having been continually inhabited since the Middle Bronze Age. It offers a safe port on a coast without very many natural harbours, and as a result has been subject to attack, conquest and destruction several times in its 4,000 year history, not least during the Crusades when it was one of the first cities to fall to the Crusaders (in 1104) and their last stronghold in the Holy Land prior to their final expulsion in 1291 after the Siege of Acre. Today the city is one of Israel’s most mixed cities (32% of the city’s population are Arabs), and it is also the holiest city of the Baha’i faith. |
|
| 22 | Partially retired professor getting very fat (5) |
| GROSS – a reverse hidden, in profeSSOR Getting, with the hidden and reverse indicators being “partially” and “retired” respectively. | |
| 23 | Manipulate one in former conspiracy (7) |
| EXPLOIT – EX (former) + PLO~T (conspiracy) with I (one) inserted. | |
| 24 | Closure of factory means moving lackey (3-3) |
| YES-MAN – Y (closure of, ie last letter of, factorY) + (means)*, the anagram indicator being “moving”.
Another clue where I started off on completely the wrong foot, as I tried to make an anagram out of lackey. Fortunately it didn’t take too long to realise that no, I couldn’t. |
|
| 25 | Cross section of lengthy bridge (6) |
| HYBRID – A hidden, in lengtHY BRIDge, the hidden indicator being “section of”. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Most cunning copper on trial (6) |
| CUTEST – CU (copper) + TEST (trial), the “on” being because this is a down clue.
Cute as cunning is the older and more traditional meaning of the word – originally it was a shortening of acute, a word meaning “clever, shrewd” since Shakespeare’s time, and even into the 20th century children were still being called cute as a compliment to their intelligence. The connection with children led finally about 100 years ago to it being used to mean attractive or pretty. But the meaning “cunning” does still exist: in such sentences as “Don’t get cute with me,” cute has nothing to do with adorable sweetness. |
|
| 2 | Unreliable carer worried about this periodically (7) |
| ERRATIC – TI (this “periodically”, ie every other letter) inserted into (carer)*, the anagram indicator being “worried”. | |
| 3 | Starts to exhibit liveliness and natural flair (4) |
| ELAN – Made up of the first letters of (ie “starts to”) Exhibit Liveliness And Natural.
And a very nice lift-and-separate at the end of the clue, as “natural flair” could itself mean elan – but we need natural to be part of the wordplay. |
|
| 5 | Examine men’s accessories and ladies’ underwear (8) |
| SCANTIES – SCAN (examine) + TIES (men’s accessories).
This one was yet another where I was completely misled at first, as I thought Examine was the definition, and the wordplay two components made up of “men’s accessories” plus “ladies’ underwear”. When the penny dropped that I was looking at the clue backwards, the answer still did not emerge immediately, as Scanties is perhaps rather an outdated term for women’s skimpy underwear – the word was coined around the late 1920s as a blend of the adjective scant and the noun panties, but I have not seen it much used recently. |
|
| 6 | Article about porky foreigner (5) |
| ALIEN – LIE (porky, as in rhyming slang lie = porky pie) inserted into A~N (article). | |
| 7 | Hostility and outrage after other ranks surrendered (6) |
| ENMITY – ENORMITY (outrage) with the OR (other ranks) deleted or “surrendered”. | |
| 9 | Start travelling to Nigeria (9) |
| ORIGINATE – (to Nigeria)*, the anagram indicator being “travelling”. Start/Originate as a verb here. | |
| 13 | Reused an improvised submarine (8) |
| UNDERSEA – (reused an)*, the anagram indicator being “improvised”. Our 6th and last clue with an anagram in it, and in this case we need the less commonly used adjectival meaning of submarine. | |
| 15 | Assist fool on the phone (7) |
| SUCCOUR – Sounds like SUCKER (fool), the homophone indicator being “on the phone”. | |
| 16 | Vacuous stepmum, unattractive in a complacent way (6) |
| SMUGLY – SM (“vacuous”, ie first and last letters of, StepmuM) + UGLY (unattractive).
Goodness me, there is a lot for a psychologist to unpack here, with a stepmother being called vacuous, ugly and complacent all in a 7 word clue. Could Shay have had an unhappy childhood? |
|
| 17 | Hit English officer lying in bed (6) |
| BELTED – B~ED (from the clue) containing E (English) + LT (ie lieutenant, an officer). Hit is the past tense of the verb here, not the noun or the present tense of the verb. | |
| 19 | Medication and surgery after case of distemper (5) |
| DROPS – DR (“case of”, ie first and last letters of, DistempeR) + OPS (surgery).
A very smooth surface, which I only fully understood when I realised that there was more than one round of operations in the course of surgery. |
|
| 21 | Sterilise, for example, to control onset of plague (4) |
| SPAY – S~AY (for example) with P (“onset of”, ie first letter of, Plague) inserted into it, the insertion indicator being “to control”.
And right at the end Shay caused me to think very hard, and on a 4 letter clue too, as until I got both checkers I could not make any sense of the wordplay, not least because of the very clever and misleading use of the commas in the clue. |
|
7:39
I tried to do something with (lackey)*, too, but gave that up fairly quickly.
I was a little slow on some of the clues that should have been obvious, like drops and scanties. I just biffed some of the answers, like estate. erratic, tornado, distinct – all obvious answers. I was a bit annoyed at seeing the backwards hidden, but I never see them.
Time: 9:11
11 minutes, my best time since Rongo on 26th January although I wouldn’t class it as easy but I happened to know the tricky bits.
I looked twice at SITE as a verb but of course it’s fine, just took me by surprise. And I’d usually have been caught by ENMITY which I always want to spell ’emnity’ but the crucial checker was already in place and saved me from myself.
11+ minutes, with two or three spent on SCANTIES.
I just couldn’t wear it…
SCC 20:35 bested by Shay’s acres of scanties finding no succour undersea and possibly because I’m taking liberal advantage of the Qantas business class lounge at Brisbane on my way to Christchurch which offers a not too shabby Chardonnay Pinot Noir sparkling white. Thank you Australia for a memorable trip and hello NZ.
Ta CAS
😁
Shay the Merciless showing an unexpected gentle side today. Lots of first rate clues but pick of the bunch has to be the vacuous step-mum.
Great entertainment. I got a bit stuck in the NW where I struggled to parse both ESTATE and ENMITY, and then had to rummage around for my SCANTIES. But home and hosed in 07:09 for a Good Day.
Many thanks Shay and Cedric.
Isn’t that the north east?
😆 I think I may have mentioned before that geography is my weakest suit, but that’s a new low!
Generally fairly straightforward but with a few that caused me difficulties at the end – SCANTIES, ESTATE, ENMITY, HYBRID and SPAY being the main culprits. But all fairly clued and enjoyable to solve.
Finished in 7.55.
Thanks to Cedric and Shay
30 minutes to finish which isn’t bad for this week.
Last ones in were ENMITY which I could not scan until coming here and SCANTIES which was a ‘guess then parse’.
Initially tried IDIOM instead of AXIOM neither of which parsed until A for Advanced and X for By finally made sense
Thanks Cedric and Shay.
5.58
Smooth seas here, delayed only by struggling to believe SCANTIES are a thing but feeling duty bound to follow the written orders. GROSS and ORIGINATE were pleasing examples of the QC setter’s art which were noted and enjoyed.
4:27. Nothing held me up much and I finished with a quick second run through the clues I’d skipped on the first pass. COD to MEDIEVAL as I find mead vile, but I liked CUTEST and ORIGINATE too. Thanks for the history of Akka and rest of the blog Cedric, and thank-you Shay for the neat puzzle.
A good QC to end the week on a higher note. This went smoothly apart from a minute or two spent on SCANTIES. Some good, straightforward clues and some satisfying twists, all clued fairly.
I finished in 14.50 (all parsed) which is a relief after some of this week’s horrors (with Wurm being an honourable exception).
Thanks to Shay for returning me to sanity and to Cedric for his usual thorough and interesting blog.
15 in 20 minutes, pretty much all of the west side. Another two in 30 in the north east with estate and alien.
East side definitely trickier or was that just me?
Thanks Cedric and Shay
Quick slow quick today with a long period in the middle trying to unlock NW and SW, one clue in each released the bottleneck to finish at 30.02 but enjoyable.
Following Cedric’s comment I’m too polite say whether I’ve seen much use of scanties in recent times 🙄
Thanks Shay and Cedric, esp for parsing of axiom. X for by gets us again!,
Failed on BELTED, stupidly. Major Eyebrow Raise but eventually solved SCANTIES. Hm. This ho-ho nudge-nudge word spoils the puzzle, imo. Thanks vm, Cedric.
I wasn’t familiar with the word, but is it any worse than ‘briefs’?
Briefs = normal word you could use in a UK shop. Scanties = naff, but not as racy as budgie-smugglers 🙂
Fairly quick through all but 15d and most of NE corner, 15d eventually dropped in, then second cup of coffee. then shower, then another 20 mins or so before giving up. Still a good work out for the other three quarters (I hope ours are as good this afternoon). Thanks Shay and Cedric.
17 mins…
Thought I was on for a much better time, but then got held up by 5dn “Scanties” which I’d never heard of. It didn’t help that I put in “Idiom” for 10ac without looking at the clue properly.
However, as noted above, a welcome relief from a difficult week.
FOI – 1ac “Clever”
LOI – 5dn “Scanties”
COD – 19dn “Drops” – made me chuckle.
Thanks as usual!
7:17
Calmer waters after a tricky week. I found it mostly smooth, until the last five in the SE corner, where it took seeing the hidden HYBRID to unlock the others. SPAY might not be obvious if you’ve never owned a dog or cat, and I can’t say I knew that ACRE is now known as something different, my knowledge coming from studying the Crusades getting on for fifty years ago.
Thanks Cedric for the educational blog, and Shay for the puzzle
Hadn’t heard of ACRE or AKKA, so thanks to Cedric for the enlightenment. I romped through this in just ove six minutes but sadly didn’t spot my typo at 15d: SOCCOUR. Sucker! Thanks Shay and Cedric.
27:06 – an average time for this difficult week. I didn’t find this straightforward, needing a number of unparsed biffs to eventually finish. NHO ACRE as a town.
Slow for us – however felt this a very good example of the art of setting a QC. Even the anagrams were frequently intertwined with other cryptic devices – rarely was there anything as straightforward as a simple double definition yet not a single clue seemed anything other than fair.
This is one I will certainly add to my little pile of sample ‘fun and explicable’ QCs to be shared with the almost of age grandchildren. The blog was terrific too – that, also will be there for them.
Thank you Shay and Cedric S.
Good puzzle from Shay which I finished in 8:38 after at one point thinking I might be on for a personal too ten entry.
Failed to parse ENMITY so thanks for that Cedric.
8.58 That was a very nice puzzle with excellent anagrams and some unusual wordplay, e.g. in ESTATE. LOI BELTED. Thanks Cedric and Shay.
A lightweight-for-Shay puzzle, but entertaining nevertheless. I was a bit worried about the Israeli port, but subconsciously I must have heard ACRE before, as it suddenly came to me. However, I’ve not heard of its current name, so thanks, Cedric for the enlightenment in the blog, and also for the information about CUTEST being the original meaning, as I thought that was an Americanism. Funny how a number of words that we think of as being modern American terms or nuances of meaning turn out to be old English where the meaning becomes changed over here. Bill Bryson has written at least three books about the English language, amongst many other fascinating subjects, which I thoroughly recommend to anyone who isn’t already a fan. He basically taught me that non-fiction can actually be fascinating! 🙂
DNF
Way off the pace today. The LHS flew in but the right was beyond me. NHO SCANTIES or ACRE the place. Failed to get SPAY and BELTED too. All in all a disaster.
Much gentler than of late. Biffed unknown ACRE, had a query around SUCCOUR (DNK could be used as a verb), and spent ages trying to insert ‘cot’ for ‘bed’ somewhere into BELTED. Agree with Countrywoman1 re: SCANTIES – outdated and just, well, cringeworthy! Very interesting to read about origins of cute. Many thanks Cedric. Thanks Shay.
On the plus side, once the answers were in place they became obvious and the parsings were (mostly) straightforward, but the path to completion for this solver was long and hard going in places.
In fact, I thought I was going to DNF on the last pair of Axiom ‘Scanties’ (eat your heart out, M&S – other brands available), but I finally remembered the By/X trick for the forgotten Axiom, and so secured a standing room only day out in the SCC.
CoD to the well-hidden Hybrid, just ahead of the pursuing Estate car. Invariant
9.42.
40 mins. Of which half was spent on the NE corner. Couldn’t parse the ax bit in axiom, but it fit the clue definition, so bunged it in. I find the words briefs and panties far more toe-curling than scanties for some reason, so happy enough for it to appear here
FOI Cutest
LOI Enmity
COD Hybrid
thank Shay and C