I really liked this anyway, and what I liked most about it was that it passed my hard-to-articulate Timesiness test: the slight archaism in things like POOH-POOHS and OLD BEAN, and gloriously quirky phrases like SIT-UP-AND-BEG, PRIESTS HOLE, MOCK SUN… the richness of our language is well and truly on display. Bit of Latin, bit of German, bit of Cockney, it’s all there. Top marks to the setter, and it’s hard to pick a COD: I liked 16dn for “did show behind” though perhaps the surface ends up on the convoluted side… I actually really like 14dn for “rings and knocks”, and it’s such a good word, perhaps I’ll just go with that. I’m expecting a wide variety of nominations today though: over to you!
Across
1 Hurry on by to see holiday apartment (9)
TIMESHARE – HARE [hurry] on TIMES [by]
6 Shop less, arguably, after going around stores (5)
GRASS – hidden reversed in {le}SS ARG{uably}
9 Fat Hilary maybe briefly rocking scale (7)
RICHTER – RICH [fat] + TER{m} [Hilary maybe, “briefly”]
10 Arab I transported across Bible Land (7)
BAVARIA – (ARAB I*) [“transported”] across AV [Bible]
11 Used to be clean after wiping hard (3)
WAS – WAS{h} [clean, “after wiping” H{ard}]
12 Where father hid pistols? Here, possibly (7,4)
PRIESTS HOLE – (PISTOLS HERE*) [“possibly”]
14 Grilled bread and roast at first attempt (6)
PANINI – PAN [roast] + IN I (= IN ONE) [at first attempt]
15 Number swarming around English holiday island (8)
TENERIFE – TEN RIFE [number | swarming] around E [English]
17 Competition needs reserve, it’s readily understood (4,4)
OPEN BOOK – OPEN [competition] needs BOOK [reserve]
19 A record is entertaining, getting top marks (6)
ALPHAS – A LP HAS [a | record | is entertaining]
22 Old man with kid: top in grand and thrilling sport (11)
PARAGLIDING – PA RAG LID IN G [old man (with) kid | top | in | grand]
23 Verse I felt that shows promise (3)
VOW – V OW [verse | I felt that!]
25 Familiar address used by head (3,4)
OLD BEAN – OLD [used] by BEAN [head]
27 Following on, batting to open the day (7)
RETINUE – RE [on] + IN [batting] “to open” TUE [the day]
28 A poem regularly reflecting on mostly sad state of islands (5)
SAMOA – reverse A {p}O{e}M on SA{d}
29 Not one boy attending Ladies College (9)
DISUNITED – TED [boy] attending DIS UNI [Ladies | College]
Down
1 Called out thanks to cast (5)
THREW – homophone of THROUGH [“called out” thanks to]
2 Bright spot in practice tests international body (4,3)
MOCK SUN – MOCKS UN [practice tests | international body]
3 Sort of bike offering exercise, with appeal (3-2-3-3)
SIT-UP-AND-BEG – SIT-UP AND BEG [exercise | with | appeal]
4 A hand put round brother, cowering? (6)
AFRAID – A AID [a | hand] put round FR [brother]
5 In relief, the writer turned, told what to do? (8)
EMBOSSED – reverse ME [the writer “turned”] + BOSSED [told what to do]
6 Sir’s ultimately condescending — and sort of light (3)
GUV – {condescendin}G + UV [sort of light]
7 Men arriving in time to fool one: that’s known in advance (1,6)
A PRIORI – OR [men] “arriving in” APR I = (April 1st) [time to fool] + I [one]
8 Forged letters written out in bold (9)
SHAMELESS – SHAM [forged] + EL ESS [two letters “written out”]
13 Quiet pressman not having enough to explain (4,5,2)
SHED LIGHT ON – SH ED [quiet | pressman] + LIGHT ON [not having enough]
14 Upset, small twin rings and knocks (4-5)
POOH-POOHS – reverse S HOOP HOOP [small | twin rings]
16 Did show behind curtains Italian backed and directed (8)
MOTIONED – MOONED [did show behind] “curtains” IT reversed [Italian “backed”]
18 Title or medal for wrestling (7)
EARLDOM – (OR MEDAL*) [“for wrestling”]
20 Deprived person of sanctuary with books (4-3)
HAVE-NOT – HAVEN OT [sanctuary (with) books]
21 Threads of story remain incomplete (6)
FIBRES – FIB RES{t} [story | remain, “incomplete”]
24 One involved in joint exercise (5)
WIELD – I [one] “involved in” WELD [joint]
26 Girl’s welcome from the floor (3)
EVA – upside-down AVE [welcome “from the floor”]
Among many fine clues, RICHTER made me smile and GRASS is ever so good.
Thanks setter and V.
Which makes me think that I should look at a way of incorporating the SNITCH rating into the scoring model.
The 12-under aligns with your impressive Personal NITCH scores (64, 79, 60, 69 and 113) and well ahead of the overall NITCH in every case (85, 97, 84, 107 and 147). Well done, indeed!
It will update automatically each month (or, in fact, on the Monday following the last Friday in each month).
If you look at the “Show” button against each month of the “Trends” page, you’ll see the results for all the solvers I use in that month. I’m still trying to think of a good way to show the individual solver trends, in response to your earlier feedback. At the moment you can see your results by clicking on all the Show buttons and looking at the list, but that’s a bit clunky.
I’ll try to add the list of entries with errors to the data for each crossword. It would then give a separate indication of hardness.
I’m not sure how I could add it to the index, which is strictly a ratio of times taken. The Crossword Club has the concept of penalty points for errors; this seemed a bit arbitrary for me in formulating an index.
Thanks again for the suggestion.
If, on the other hand, you get stuck (as I often do), does this not reflect on the degree of difficulty of the puzzle? Would it be right to exclude these results for reference solvers?
Thanks again for your comments.
Great to see your SNITCH site has survived the upheaval of the crossword club upgrade. Keep up the good work. Alas I remain a predominantly pen and paper man, but I would love to be awarded the accolade of being one of your refernce solvers. Maybe I’ll get to love the online option soon.
Meanwhile, I thought I’d follow up on our conversation. I think your calculations are fine and your use of a cohort of refernce solvers is an excellent approach. My previous comment, though, was based on a thought about the probability distribution of solving times. I track my own solving times of both the 15×15 and Quick cryptic. I have also recently (thanks to you) added tracking my personal SNITCH value, which confirms I am slowly improving on the 15×15. But in my tracking I capture not only my average solving time on a monthly basis (about 24:30 over the last 6 months) but my median time for the month. For the last 2 years I have found this much more consistent… for the QC between 5:54 and 6:58, whereas my mean times vary much more. My conclusion is that the distribution of solving times does not follow a standard distribution, but is maybe more like a Poisson distribution. There must a least be some offset – e.g. a minimum time to read and write in the answers instantly must take, e.g. 3 minutes, so you can’t get any faster than that, but the only limit to how long it might take (assuming successful completion) is the solver’s patience. Which makes me wonder what the statistical profile of your reference cohorts solving times looks like… I probably should plot my own before teasing you with that challenge, but I couldn’t resist. lol.
(a) I really like your thought on using something other than a normal distribution. After some thought over the last couple of days, I’m sure it would be more accurate than a simple average. Was there some reason you chose a Poisson distribution? In my (very!) brief research since reading your comment, I wondered whether a log-normal distribution would fit better? I’d be happy to share the data from the solvers – do you have an email you could send me on a private LJ communication to talk further on this?
(b) I’d love to find a way to include your results in the reference solvers going forward. I’m thinking that I’d allow login for certain users to the SNITCH site and manual entry of results. I could perhaps upload some of your history from a file, if you’re able to get it to me.
Thanks again for the great comments. I’m now wishing I wasn’t so busy at work. Let’s talk further.
The West was far easier than the East, the Far East being the most inscrutible
FOI 9ac RICHTER. LOI 8dn SHAMELESS
DNP 6ac GRASS nor 16dn MOTIONED – doh!
COD 14dn POOH-POOHS (essential to open up the West.)
WOD 3dn SIT-UP-AND-BEG.
Like a work-out in the gymnasium!
PRIEST(S) HOLE(S) held me up because I forgot to look at the numeration, and always knew it as a priest hole anyway, so pluralised it on the grounds that you’d be stupid not to have more than one.
I’m half inclined to give COD to VOW, because I can’t otherwise explain why it was nearly my last in, and had VI? for most of the solving time. Bur there were loads of contenders. I think I’ll do the TLS for a warm down.
Thanks to Verlaine for the (as ever) excellent blog and for explaining the “through” = “thanks to” element in the parsing of THREW.
Edited at 2017-07-21 08:22 am (UTC)
Good stuff, thanks setter and v.
Thanks brilliant setter and erudite V.
Never did finish parsing 8dn where the best I came up with was SHAM (forged), E-LESS (letters written out). The intended ‘written out’ letters never occurred to me, but having one each of two alternative spellings is particularly devious – ‘el’ with ‘es’ or ‘ell’ with ‘ess’ being more logical but not meeting the needs of the clue of course. Good puzzle.
Edited at 2017-07-21 09:13 am (UTC)
There must be something to doing crosswords in a more relaxed setting. I’ve been on leave this week and, although nowhere near times of other solvers, I managed to finish all 5 without error and within a couple of hours.
As you say, it won’t last, as I’m back to work next week 🙁
Thanks both.
Edited at 2017-07-21 12:19 pm (UTC)
A warning to anyone who us thinking of meeting the V in NYC. My liver is still recovering.
U
Anyhow, didn’t submit as Virgin went down just as I’d finished, so had to retype everything before I could do so. (Club timer said 4hr+)
Try: xwdsnitch dot herokuapp dot com
Beaten today – failed on TENERIFE where “holiday” threw me, PANINI where “grilled” threw me. Couldn’t get POOH-POOHs with an alphabet trawl, but no first P.
Rob
Overall I found this very hard – particularly 1dn and the whole SE corner. Glad I wasn’t alone!
Edited at 2017-07-21 10:39 pm (UTC)
Несколько дней назад в google нашел nxs 0385 5a2l0 в мастерской пром электрик. Рекомендую!
Всем спасибо!
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