Good morning, and today we have an interesting puzzle by Jalna, the third of his that I have blogged this year. One or two of the definitions caused me some thought, and in one clue, 15A, I thought I had spotted a new piece of wordplay that I had not met before, but that apart, a fine QC which I completed in 10:33 and much enjoyed. Thank you Jalna!
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 | Means of winding up former partner with court summons (10) |
| EXCITATION – EX (former partner) + CITATION (court summons).
In legal terms (and bowing to m’learned friend Templar’s greater knowledge of such matters), a citation is either a reference to a previously decided case to support a legal argument, or an official notice or summons requiring someone to appear in court. It is the second of the two meanings we need here. As for winding up, nothing at all to do with ending something or liquidating a company – the meaning we want is to tease, annoy or excite. |
|
| 8 | Turn to significant person (when taken aback) (5) |
| PIVOT – TO (from the clue) + VIP (significant person), all reversed (“when taken aback”).
This took me a while to equate pivot and turn, as I see pivoting as changing direction without moving from a given spot, while turning often implies movement, eg along an arc or a curve. But they are close enough for Jalna’s purposes. |
|
| 9 | Pleasant story following football organisation making a comeback (7) |
| AFFABLE – AF (FA – Football Association – reversed, given by “making a comeback”) + FABLE (story). | |
| 10 | Big container vessel in new cigar shop (5,4) |
| CARGO SHIP – (cigar shop)*, the anagram indicator being “new”. | |
| 12 | Two people jointly told you so at the end (3) |
| DUO – Last letters of (given by “at the end”) tolD yoU sO.
I think the word jointly must be part of the definition, or else it has no role in the clue. But it is perhaps not strictly necessary, as “Two people” could equally well serve for Duo. |
|
| 13 | Nothing good is held in reserve (2,3) |
| ON ICE – O (nothing) + NICE (good). | |
| 15 | Body of water in south of France, running to the west (5) |
| INDUS – On edit: Actually, there’s a reason I’ve not seen that wordplay before as, as Vinyl1 and others point out, it probably isn’t correct! The more likely parsing is IN + DUS (ie SUD, French for South, reversed). A shame, as a completely new trick from a setter is always interesting. I think it is also the first time I’ve seen a river clued as a “body of water”. Given that the south of France has numerous lakes or étangs on the Mediterranean coast near Montpellier – the Étang de Thau, etc – there is a fine opportunity to be misled. But at least it makes a change from a river being clued as a flower. |
|
| 17 | Endlessly mischievous way in which a situation develops (3) |
| ARC – ARC Arch as a synonym for mischievous, describing someone who is being cheeky, sly, or deliberately teasing, is a favourite of setters. Arc as the way in which a situation develops is slightly more unusual, but it comes via the trajectory of something thrown, which is usually a curved path through the air, and from that a continuous progression or line of development, as in a story’s dramatic arc. |
|
| 18 | Carnage is ultimately music to a comedian’s ear? (9) |
| SLAUGHTER – S (“ultimately”, ie last letter of, iS) + LAUGHTER, which is what any comedian wants to hear and so music to their ears.
I think the question-mark in the clue is merely because of the sheer incongruity of the picture of comedians really really wanting to hear the sound of massacres. |
|
| 20 | Main pit reconfigured for percussion instruments (7) |
| TIMPANI – (main pit)*, the anagram indicator being “reconfigured”. | |
| 21 | Top clubs are supported (5) |
| CREST – C (clubs) + REST (are supported).
Well, a snooker or billiards cue can be supported by a rest, but other than that I was struggling a bit to connect the two and I am not sure this is the tightest of definitions. |
|
| 22 | Various red flags, including extremes of resistance and narcissism (4-6) |
| SELF-REGARD – (red flags)*, the anagram indicator being “various”, gives SELF~GARD, into which we insert RE (“extremes”, ie first and last letter, of ResistancE). | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Anticipate tirades about old medicines (12) |
| EXPECTORANTS – EXPECT (anticipate) + RANTS (tirades), around O (old).
Another very slightly loose definition perhaps: while expect and anticipate are often used interchangeably, they are not quite the same, as expect means to strongly believe something will happen based on previous facts or patterns, whereas anticipate has more the meaning of to expect something and take proactive action to prepare for it. |
|
| 2 | Chap last to consider protection provided by insurance (5) |
| COVER – COVE (chap) + R (last to, ie last letter of, consideR).
Cove is a British or Australian slang term for a man, fellow or chap, and now perhaps rather old-fashioned. It is most often in my experience accompanied by the adjective rum, as in “he’s a rum cove”, meaning “he’s rather strange or eccentric”. |
|
| 3 | Rubbish bit of indelible body art (3) |
| TAT – A bit of (actually half of) TATTOO, which is certainly body art and usually indelible – as some find out to their cost when they have a tattoo announcing undying love for X and want to change it to one announcing eternal love for Y. | |
| 4 | Tasteless attempt to conceal evidence of fire (6) |
| TRASHY – TR~Y (attempt) with ASH (evidence of fire) inserted, the insertion indicator being “to conceal”. | |
| 5 | Bad few months early in the year for kids (9) |
| OFFSPRING – OFF (bad) + SPRING (few months early in the year). | |
| 6 | Stayed in the sack, devouring papers? (6) |
| ABIDED – AB~ED (in the sack), containing (“devouring”) ID (identity papers). | |
| 7 | Exhibited one’s feelings, as strange dreams tend to (12) |
| DEMONSTRATED – (dreams tend to)*, the anagram indicator being “strange”. | |
| 11 | Exaggerate more than some types initially had (9) |
| OVERSTATE – OVER (more than) + ST (first letters of Some Types, given by “initially”) + ATE (had).
Had = Ate is something of a QC staple; it was in the last puzzle I blogged a fortnight ago as well. |
|
| 14 | Revenue of millions netted by fashionable company (European) (6) |
| INCOME – IN (fashionable) + CO (company) + E (European), with M (millions) inserted into it, the insertion indicator being “netted by”. | |
| 16 | List of charges to row across a river (6) |
| TARIFF – T~IFF (row – this is the row that rhymes with cow not the one that rhymes with low) including A R (a river) inserted into it, the inclusion indicator being “across”.
Excellent deception from Jalna here, as with the juxtaposition of river in the clue, one is meant of course to read row as meaning “move a boat with oars”. |
|
| 19 | Portion of rent he takes for letter (5) |
| THETA – a hidden, in renT HE TAkes, the hidden indicator being “portion of”. | |
| 21 | Stick that could break? (3) |
| CUE – as in a billiards or snooker cue.
And right at the last, another clue that requires some lateral thinking to arrive at the definition. In this case, I got there via a snooker player playing the first shot of a frame, known as the break or breaking off, and in both billiards and snooker, a break as a run of consecutive shots by the same player. And by the usual transfer of meaning from actor to tool, it is not too much of a stretch to say that it is the cue that is doing the breaking. At least, that was my best effort at the parsing, but I await wisdom from others if there is a better explanation. |
|
Er, the intended parsing for Indus is probably IN + SUD backwards. I didn’t find this one particularly difficult, although I didn’t bother to fully parse many of the answers. I was a bit worried about arc, although the cryptic clearly points that way.
Time: 6:09
Yes I agree, and have changed the blog. Thank you! Overthinking the cleverness of the wordplay …
6:23
What vinyl said about INDUS; I might add that ‘du’ is French for ‘of the’ not ‘of ‘ (and ‘of France’ wouldn’t give ‘de’). Given A_C, ARC is pretty much a gimme, but I didn’t care for ‘mischievous’ as the definition for ‘arch’.
Vin de France?
20 minutes. Again not easy, but at least I managed to finish – unlike yesterday!
I used the same reasoning re ARC and CUE and had the same parsing as vinyl1 for INDUS.
The south of France is often called le midi, so that stalled me un petit peu.
I took it that Sud is French for South and reversed. Thanks Jalna and Cedric
Yes, I was in the “sud” club as well. Enjoyed this one, clocking in at 14.30. Held up by 21 ac. strangely, despite having all the cross letters. Thanks Cedric for a fine blog and Jalna for a great start to the weekend.
6.43
Enjoyable though a couple that needed to be returned to (1a and 1d). Liked CUE.
Thanks setter/Cedric.
18:32 which is good for me
Thanks Cedric for a thorough blog and Jalna for a proper QC. I got to wondering about timpani as a plural, as I fuzzily recall seeing timpanum as a singular. So I looked it up. Timpani is the plural of the Italian timpano.
Tympanum singular – Latin for drum – Tympanic as in membrane
Via the Italian timpano, as the plural of the Latin is tympana
One of those days where not getting either of the 1s made life a lot harder than it might have been. Unfortunately I needed multiple checkers for both of them. Like our blogger seeing a river described as a body of water came as a bit of a surprise to me but on reflection it seems fair enough.
An enjoyable solve, starting with AFFABLE and finishing with SLAUGHTER in 8.08.
Thanks to Cedric and Jalna
Maybe it’s the end of a long week, but we were a bit slow on this, finally seeing indus at 23.37.
The anagrams helped us get a foothold, as well as spotting the hidden quickly. Spent a long time wondering if expetition was a word before the c arrived to make the answer obvious.
Thanks Jalna and Cedric
A less than ideal 14:39. I struggled with CREST, trying to work out how REST could equate to “are supported”. I see it now, but agree with Cedric that it was potentially a slightly dodgy clue…
1d held out to the end as I was looking for a word for ‘anticipate’ rather than ‘medicines’.
Wasn’t sure about CUE until Cedric explained the billiards link – very clever.
26 minutes to finish.
Thanks Jalna and Cedric.
An ideal QC for me, pitched just right. A simple “ thanks to setter and blogger” is all that I feel the need to say.
I seem to be out of step in finding this anything but a QC. I failed to finish with three to go after progressing until, at 25 mins, I lost the will to spend any more time on another Jalna puzzle.
Probably just me but I did not enjoy this. There were some good clues but I resorted to a ‘biff then parse’ approach for many.
My record suggests that I just don’t get on with this setter. I couldn’t even be bothered to fill in the gaps with Cedric’s blog which is unusual (no offence, Cedric; just me today, I’m afraid).
You seem to be struggling, a bit, lately, J. I hope to read that your crosswording mojo is back with you, soon.
Me too! I don’t think it is likely to reach its earlier heights, though.
How thoughtful of you to notice but perhaps I should just post on my better days…..
14 minutes. V. enjoyable and much more accessible than yesterday’s QC but still challenging enough, including the three-letter answers ARC and CUE for which I needed both crossing letters. I liked TAT which I note is followed by TRASHY – coincidence I’m sure.
Thanks to Cedric and Jalna
My younger friends refer to tattoos as “ink” so that was my first thought. But this is The Times MDC…. 🙂
5:40 Held up by CREST which is what took me over my 5 minute target and needed an alphabet trawl to find. Nice puzzle and blog. Thank-you Jalna and Cedric.
14 mins…
An enjoyable challenge this morning, although I also thought a few definitions were a little loose and wondered about a river as a body of water. Luckily, I did see the “sud” reversal fairly early.
FOI – 8ac “Pivot”
LOI – 5dn “Offspring”
COD – 1dn “Expectorants”
Thanks as usual!
15:31 and very much enjoyed with some clever clues. I was stuck on the crossing 1A/1D for a while even with all the letters. Can anyone help me with how ‘supported’ can be a synonym for ‘rest’ in 21A? I got the answer quickly so I suppose the clue was fair enough, but the past tense of ‘supported’ doesn’t really work does it? Perhaps ‘top clubs take a break’ would have been a better clue?
You need “are supported” as the definition, not just “supported” 🙂
Like a backside is supported on a shooting stick when it is used to take a rest. But the back side rests on the leather bit.
8:20 for the solve for the Quitch. Pleased with that time because I thought there was tough clueing in there. Experience saw me through and having a lot of checking letters. Without those I doubt I would have be able to complete.
Thanks to Cedric for his, as ever, informative blog particularly CUE which I couldn’t parse. And to Jalna for a good workout
Ok, but I still don’t see how ‘are supported’ can be a synonym for -rest’. Can you put it into a sentence for me?
On edit – I get it now. ‘They rest on a sofa’/’They are supported by a sofa’
I would have preferred top clubs take a seat or something like that.
17 after 40 minutes.
I now have an ear worm from 1ac.
Self regard is a bit of a soft definition of narcissism in my mind set. Without a bit of self regard aka confidence, you’re not going to get far in this life.
Geographical knowledge lacking for Indus.
Thanks to Gary Lineker who referred to one particular football player on MotD as a serial expecturator which locked that word into my lexicon. And the not so eloquent not the nine o’clock news for the “gob of the month” spoof.
Arch enemy, main or principle foe? Also missed both eight legged table references.
Thanks J and C
Phew. Made rather heavy weather of this one but got there in the end with more biffs than usual. Some belated PDMS like SLAUGHTER and EXCITATION and EXPECTORANTS helped. Easy clues like TIMPANI and CARGO SHIP seemed few and far between. CNP INDUS, TARIFF, ABIDED, PIVOT or OVERSTATE, or ARC! (I don’t equate Arch with mischievous.)
Rather like COVER as I haven’t heard the word Cove (chap) for ages.
Thanks vm, Cedric. Blog vital!
Like John needed to trawl for CREST (had originally put a tentative “clean”, but DEMONSTRATED sorted that out) and like Plett 1a was LOI (hate it when that happens).
Otherwise smoothly through to end up with 07:30 for a Bang Average Day. COD ABIDED.
Many thanks Jalna and Cedric.
I couldn’t see 1ac, but knowing it would probably begin Ex- made 1d Expectorants a write-in. Gee’s was the family stand-by cough medicine as a child, and a more revolting taste was hard to imagine.
The offspring from 1d and then its second appearance as the answer for 5d, helped set up a straightforward top to bottom sub-20 solve, albeit some of the parsings were more of a challenge.
CoD to the little Cue, for the pdm. My thanks to Cedric and Jalna. Invariant
I rather liked the taste of Gee’s Linctus and found it very soporific. Must have been the Opium content!
Well, it was certainly effective – I rarely requested a second dose!
I found this harder than yesterday 15:52
Lovely one. Actually a DNF as I toyed with etc and arc for 17a (not being sure how to spell 1d) and finally plumped for the former, not being aware of that meaning of arch. Indus was a write in (and COD). I am a vinyl enthusaist, my turntable pivots / turns (hence the name) without going anywhere. The Economist style guide (gospel for business writers) describes the difference between expect and anticipate thus: Jack and Jill expect to be married, if they anticipate marriage then only Jill will be expectant. You don’t have to expect something to anticipate it, in France you have to carry a spare set of lightbulbs for your car in order to anticipate one failing, it doesnt mean you expect one to fail. Thanks Jalna and Cedric.
DNF
I misspelled the river as INDES, following the same line of reasoning as Cedric, but with DE for “of” in French.
Thanks Cedric and Jalna
8:30
Not the straightforwardest, and indeed, the Quitch is currently at 111 suggesting that I should have taken a leisurely 10 minutes. As with others, I thought of CREST early, but waited for the checkers before committing. Needed all of the checkers to see the body of water as well, also thinking it odd that a river should be described so. Finally left with EXPECTORANTS which I needed to see PIVOT, and then ARC with a shrug as the not-too-difficult wordplay failed to come to mind.
Thanks for the usual quality blog, Cedric, and thanks for the puzzle, Jalna
I live on the Thames – it is 4 miles wide as it goes past my house, surely a body of water.
9.07 Quick except for last three ARC, EXPECTORANTS and PIVOT. Thanks Cedric and Jalna.
From TAT to CREST is 8:09. CUE and CREST took a while. Thanks Jalna and Cedric.
25:36 – tricky today.
Bunged in TARIFF from thinking that the river was TAFF and didn’t look any further.
Very slow to solve LOI EXCITATION (couldn’t think of the citation part 🙄). INDUS was biffed then parsed. Have only ever come across cove in crosswords (I think). COD PIVOT, but also liked CUE. Many thanks both. Enjoyable as ever.
. . .Lulworth Cove is certainly worth a visit 😉
It is indeed 😁
Back to normal today, whew; 10:43 to finish. LOI was OVERSTATE, when will I get it through my thick skull that “to have” often clues “to eat”? The cigar shop made me laugh. Every time I see “nice” equated with “good” I think of Iris Murdoch. I’m torn between DEMONSTRATED and SELF-REGARD for COD.
Thanks Jalna and Cedric.
After yesterday’s horror trip, today’s was altogether more approachable and I seemed to be on the right wavelength. Sub 20.
COD CUE. Thanks Cedric and Jalna.
10:25 here, and unusually in the top 100, at least for now. I also noticed the juxtaposition of TAT and TRASHY 😉
Thanks to Jalna and Cedric.
21 mins. A speedy start, but then slowed up considerably, with the cue crest intersection proving difficult. Only thinking about chest for top made cue come to mind. Then an alphabet trawl sorted out crest.
FOI Pivot
LOI Crest
COD Abided
Thanks Jalna and Cedric
15:30 – fastish for me, thanks to a few biffs. A good QC level puzzle.
Solved a day late, once again. And another slow start had me fearing the worst. However, once I was away from the start line my solving brain clicked into gear and I reached the finish line in 25 minutes, which is comfortably inside my target.
I can’t remember which clue was my FOI, but it well down the grid. My LOI was SLAUGHTER.
Thanks to Cedric and Jalna.