Time taken: 10:37.
I thought I was on for a very quick time here – by 5 minutes I was down to three answers: 14 across, 5 down, and 4 across. The three of them took as long as the rest of the crossword as I was drawing a mental blank and scribbling letter combinations on my note paper to try to get some inspiration.
Judging by the early times in, I was the only one having that problem! So maybe today is your day to well and truly beat my time! How did you do?
| Across | |
| 1 | Rascal with voice damage (6) |
| IMPAIR – IMP(rascal) and AIR(voice) | |
| 4 | Sanction capital city, ignoring Fifth Amendment (8) |
| ACCREDIT – ACCRA(capital of Ghana) minus the fifth letter, then EDIT(amendment) | |
| 9 | Serious doctor with a reduced staff (7) |
| DRASTIC – DR(doctor), A, and STICK(staff) minus the last letter | |
| 11 | Massage feathers with difficulty at first (3,4) |
| RUB DOWN – DOWN(feathers) after RUB(difficulty) | |
| 12 | Not a single person has 12 euros to start with (2,3) |
| NO ONE – NOON(12 o’clock) and the first letter of Euros | |
| 13 | Flying reptiles getting cold drink (6,3) |
| TRIPLE SEC – anagram of REPTILES, then C(cold). Not sure if anyone drinks this by itself, I’ve had it in kamikazes and margaritas | |
| 14 | Transport for Ollie’s fish food (10) |
| SKATEBOARD – SKATE(fish), BOARD(food). Ollie here refers to a move you do on a skateboard. Took me forever to see this. | |
| 16 | Drop broadcast for match (4) |
| SYNC – homophone of SINK(drop) | |
| 19 | Remove lead from dangerous light (4) |
| AIRY – remove the first letter from HAIRY(dangerous) | |
| 20 | Psychiatrist to finish shooting film? (6-4) |
| SHRINK-WRAP – SHRINK(psychiatrist), WRAP(finish shooting) | |
| 22 | Requirement to carry over long pencil, say (9) |
| MOUSTACHE – MUST(requirement) containing O(over), then ACHE(long) | |
| 23 | Low point when free article is sent back (5) |
| NADIR – RID(free) and AN(article) all reversed | |
| 25 | Maniac reversing into bar — a domed building (7) |
| ROTUNDA – NUT(maniac) reversed inside ROD(bar) and A | |
| 26 | Crying out for engine that runs without fluid, ultimately (7) |
| NEEDING – anagram of ENGINE containing the last letter in fluiD | |
| 27 | Fan of podcast in French hosted by scientist (8) |
| LISTENER – EN(“in” in French) inside Joseph LISTER, surgeon/scientist | |
| 28 | Optimistic to boost copper circuit? (6) |
| UPBEAT – if you boost the copper’s circuit you UP BEAT | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Unnamed person’s infiltrating Asian country and another (9) |
| INDONESIA – ONE’S(unnamed person’s) inside INDIA | |
| 2 | Scotsman entering river for a grand, perhaps (5) |
| PIANO – IAN(Scotsman) inside the river PO | |
| 3 | Owing rent, hide in a different state (2,3,3) |
| IN THE RED – anagram of RENT and HIDE | |
| 5 | Messenger from warship with one note penned by servant (7,6) |
| CARRIER PIGEON – CARRIER(warship, think aircraft carrier) then I(one), G(musical note) inside PEON(servant). My last in. | |
| 6 | Russian capital conceals last of bomb debris (6) |
| RUBBLE – RUBLE(Russian money, capital) containing the last letter of bomB | |
| 7 | Pessimist succeeded in lifting mind-set on New Year (9) |
| DOOMSAYER – S(succeeded) underneath MOOD(mind-set) reversed, then an anagram of YEAR | |
| 8 | Mixer’s temperature — chilled, mostly (5) |
| TONIC – T(temperature) then ON ICE(chilled) minus the last letter | |
| 10 | Ignore superfluous details and show a quiz programme instead? (3,2,3,5) |
| CUT TO THE CHASE – glad the enumeration left no other possibility. I had no idea there was a quiz show called THE CHASE. If you show it instead, then you CUT TO THE CHASE | |
| 15 | Indicator of sarcasm is terrible to a squire (3,6) |
| AIR QUOTES – anagram of TO,A,SQUIRE | |
| 17 | Arrest Yankee with correct kind of protection (9) |
| COPYRIGHT – COP(arrest), Y(Yankee), RIGHT(correct) | |
| 18 | Superficial sort covered in ooze (4-4) |
| SKIN-DEEP – KIND(sort) inside SEEP(ooze) | |
| 21 | This second chapter goes into redress (2,4) |
| AT ONCE – C(chapter) inside ATONE(redress) | |
| 22 | Drink tipped on a large artwork (5) |
| MURAL – RUM(drink) reversed, A, L(large) | |
| 24 | Force king into shoddy establishment (5) |
| DRIVE – R(king) inside DIVE(shoddy establishment) | |
15:17
Another easy one. LOI ACCREDIT.
I thought this was going to be another easy one after yesterday but got held up on a few. Never heard of an OLLIE as I’m a bit past skateboarding and fish food for SKATEBOARD was a bit of a stretch for me. After enough checkers I saw CARRIER PIGEON and carrier was easy enough for warship but parsing pigeon was harder, thought PEON was more a low paid worker than a servant. COD to MOUSTACHE.
Thanks G and setter.
At the risk of stating the obvious, it’s not fish food for SKATEBOARD, it’s fish for SKATE and food for BOARD.
Thank you K. Yes, I saw the wordplay and how it worked, I just thought that if you didn’t know the meaning of an ‘Ollie’ you’d be hard pressed to choose the right fish and food.
I agree about the peon, and Wiktionary has this (which does imply working FOR someone I suppose:
“From a combination of Middle French pion, peon and Spanish peón, both from Late Latin pedōnem (“pedestrian”). Doublet of pawn.
Noun
peon (plural peons or peones)
1) A lowly person; a peasant or serf; a labourer who is obliged to do menial work.
2) (figurative) A person of low rank or importance.
3) (India, historical) A messenger, foot soldier, or native policeman.”
Around 45 minutes. Enjoyed it. FOI RUB DOWN LOI LISTENER. Lot of easy ones gave plenty of crossers to solve the harder ones. Liked DOOMSAYER, SHRINK WRAP, CARRIER PIGEON and MOUSTACHE.
Thanks G
Most of this wasn’t too bad, but I really struggled with accredit, air quotes, and skateboard. I eventually managed to biff accredit and air quotes without bothering with the cryptics, but then I had to turn around and use the cryptic to get skate board – didn’t have a clue about Ollie.
Time: 27:48
32 minutes. I’m another who struggled with ACCREDIT, CARRIER PIGEON and SKATEBOARD having made quite fast progress (for me) through the rest of the grid.
Elsewhere I didn’t know the alternative spelling of ‘rouble’, but what else could the answer at 5dn be other than RUBBLE.
I lost time over 10dn because my first thought at 10dn was GET TO THE POINT and I wrote it on the assumption that it might somehow be a reference to the TV quiz show ‘Pointless’. But I was forced to reconsider when I solved ROTUNDA which highlighted a possible error in my existing answer. I was particularly annoyed with myself because I watch THE CHASE pretty much every day.
I think ‘Ollie’ as a SKATEBOARD manoeuvre has come up before, but I didn’t remember it.
21.50
Same struggles as others. Biffed STAGECOACH from some checkers, ignorant as to Ollie which didn’t help the messenger clue. Had ___REDIT for ages unable to see what the first three letters were.
Liked AIR QUOTES and actually a good puzzle I thought
Thanks George
Just caught up with the last two 15x15s—was at an election watch gathering at the Nation office last night (still recovering from what went down then)—and was glad that neither of them took very long. I got CUT TO THE CHASE right away, though I didn’t know the show, but was hung up a bit at the end by the top two. I always have Cointreau on hand and sometimes drink it by itself, with just some ice cubes, as a digestif, though it usually goes into a “cheesecake martini” (with vanilla Stoli and pineapple juice) or, when I want to take the time to squeeze a lemon, a sidecar.
Do keep the cocktail recommendations coming!
Funny old day. Approaching PB territory with 14.40 here and in the quickie I registered a PW of 17+. This was an enjoyable and cheerful puzzle which I was able to parse as I went, though I SKATEBOARDed right over the ref to The Chase. The inclusion of Ollie in a clue suggests we really are serious about getting that elusive youth vote, but I was disappointed to see no tattoos, piercings or caps on backwards in the recent photos of the championships. Thank you G.
From Queen Jane Approximately:
When all of your advisers heave their plastic
At your feet to convince you of your pain
Trying to prove that your conclusions should be more DRASTIC
Won’t you come see me, Queen Jane?
‘Ollie’ was a well-established skateboarding term when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s (I was never into it myself but I remember friends spending hours trying to master that and other moves) so you’d have to define ‘youth’ quite broadly!
Yes. The fact that many of our comrades here are in the NHO camp suggests…something
One second behind the blogger (which suggests he wasn’t at his best) and with the same three holdups as most others it would seem.
Thanks George and setter.
34 mins so a run of easier ones at the moment, but, like others, last couple in ACCREDIT & SKATEBOARD took a few extra mins.
I liked SHRINK-WRAP.
Thanks G and setter.
5.13
Woof! One where my half-formed ideas while reading the clues almost invariably turned out to be right.
I really liked SKATEBOARD and TRIPLE SEC.
Thanks both.
29m 32s
I see we are definitely down with the kids with ‘Ollie’. Initially I thought it might be something to do with Laurel & (Oliver) Hardy.
Like Jack, I watch ‘The Chase’ pretty much every day. It’s very popular here in NZ. It seems a rare occasion to go into a doctor’s, dentist’s or hospital waiting room where a TV is on and it’s not showing The Chase.
Did two thirds of this in about 30 minutes in the wee small hours, when I couldn’t sleep. Got stuck on what was SKATEBOARD and AIRQUOTES. Once I had those (the Ollie reference was a mystery to me), the rest came together.
I expect tomorrow’s will be difficult.
Thanks George and Setter.
My aspens dear, whose airy cages quelled,
Quelled or quenched in leaves the leaping sun,
All felled, felled, are all felled
(Binsey Poplars, GM Hopkins)
25 mins pre-brekker got me to the same three as our blogger. Then they fell like dominoes: Accra…Carrier…Skate. Good one.
Ta setter and G.
7:28. Finishing predictably with SKATEBOARD. Like MartinP1 I was thinking about Oliver Hardy until I thought of SKATE for fish and the rest fell into place. Whilst I’ve never skateboarded myself I do recall the term from my yoof in the 1980s.
14:10
Much the same experience as our esteemed blogger. I raced through this in about 6 or 7 minutes and then ground to a halt. I’d biffed STAGECOACH which slowed down CARRIER PIGEON, and then it seemed to take an age before I thought of SKATECOARD. The Ollie reference went completely over my head. I’d probably heard of the term before as I watched some of the skateboarding at the Olympics but I didn’t make the connection. As an aside I was very impressed by the comradeship between the competitors at the Olympics, both the men and women, with them willing each other on and genuinely sharing in each others successes and failures. A real credit to the sport.
Thanks to both.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, despite only realizing what an Ollie was after solving the clue. I biffed the PIGEON after spotting the CARRIER, and am another who wouldn’t think of a peon as a servant.
Oh, THAT capital…….
FOI RUB DOWN
LOI ACCREDIT
COD MOUSTACHE
TIME 9:57
It was the two top ones that slowed me most: I had IMP but not AIR and REDIT but not ACC, but I still managed to cross the line in 15.30. I did spend a while wondering what Ollie and fish had to do with STAGECOACH, then smudged the name of the famous skateboarder Ollie Hawk to keep me happy. I knocked an L off the front of LAIRY, which was wrong in at least two ways, but still right. So pretty much a slither round a relatively easy one, and thanks to George for putting me right.
About 15 minutes. Took a long time to think of the positive meaning of ‘sanction’ for ACCREDIT, and wasn’t familiar with the Ruble spelling for RUBBLE, but no problems otherwise.
Thanks glh and setter.
FOI In the red
LOI Accredit
COD Skateboard
11.00
Also caught out by GET TO THE POINT but put straight by ROTUNDA.
“Ollie” is Alan Gelfand, member (with Tony Hawk) of the legendary Bones Brigade, entered into the SKATEBOARDing Hall of Fame in 2013 – who knew?
LOI ACCREDIT
COD SHRINK-WRAP
Interesting! The first citation in OED is from Skateboarder Magazine in 1979: ‘his [i.e. Gelfand’s] developments, the ollie pop and the subsequent no-handed ollie aerial, rank as two of the hottest moves on the vanguard scene’.
Talk about Highbrow meeting Lowbrow for that quotation!
25.29 which is amongst my quickest ever. Actually thought it was going to be a toughie having started very slowly but once into SE corner they all started to drop in and worked my way back with SKATEBOARD LOI
I’m a lurker in Oz ( so get the puzzle a month later), and I echo your remarks exactly. I’m having a good run atm, and hope this means I’m getting better at this!
Easy peasy today, 14 minutes, with the SKATEBOARD last to arrive. The Chase is quite good, but we watch Pointless which is on at the same time.
46:53
Ollie. Never heard of it. Nice puzzle.
Thanks, g.
18:50 – NHO an Ollie, and doubt I’ll remember it, but otherwise a satisfying puzzle. Expecting a stinker tomorrow
15’23”, nho Ollie, had trouble with ACCREDIT, hesitant over AIRY… in fact, same as many others.
Thanks gl and setter.
This was all quite easy really but I made very heavy weather of it (44 minutes) and at the end had _Y_C and couldn’t believe that there was a word that fitted, so I used an electronic aid and of course it was obvious. Stagecoach was entered without understanding and that slowed me down, but eventually I remembered that an Ollie had something to do with skateboarding. If only the sports pages covered skateboarding instead of all that endless football (of two types) it would be popular. Or television even. Who would ever have heard of Ronnie O’Sullivan without it?
8:50 for my third sub-10 this week. I might need a lie down. Regression to the mean must surely be around the corner.
Lived through the skateboard craze at the ‘right’ age… but still never heard of ‘ollie’, so SKATEBOARD baffled me and only went in as my LOI with all crossers in place. The rest wasn’t too taxing, though COPYRIGHT and UPBEAT came rather late in the day.
18:29.
I got off to a flier (flyer?) with this puzzle but then ran into some trickier clues. I boarded STAGECOACH for a while which took me in the wrong direction.
COD: AT ONCE
14a DNK Ollie had anything to do with skateboards so I’m a bit surprised I got it fairly easily.
LOI 22a Moustache; the pencil put me off and I cheated. Oh dear. Very clever.
2LOI 22d Mural; came to mind V slowly.
6d Rubble; I thought the Russian capital had to have an O in it, but there’s nothing wrong with Ruble.
10d Cut… Chase; NHO the show. Read Wiki about it just now and am none the wiser.
15d NHO Air Quote, but it’s in Wiktionary, so added to Cheating Machine.
Ok I wasn’t the only one who whizzed through then came to a screaming halt then. I was slow to think of ACCRA for the capital city but my real problem was having no idea about Ollie except in Laurel and Hardy context, and pencilling in Stagecoach for the transport. After that I was battling with 5 dn till finally I turned my attention to 5ac, I already had the Edit bit and knew it had to be credit but was stuck for the start. FINALLY I got Accra, then carrier pigeon (I wouldn’t have thought of peon for servant in a million years) and then Skate for fish gave me skateboard. So I went from briefly thinking I was on for 10 minutes or so, to a final time of 21:36. I think in my case also, when I lose my momentum, I get also mentally blocked and this also didn’t help.
Thanks setter and blogger, I have a feeling now Ollie might have come up before and I had forgotten
22:22
Most enjoyable: I was happily fooled by several clues with satisfying PDM’s.
Thanks all.
34 mins, and same route through as many. NW corner flew in, then final holdouts CARRIER PIGEON, the first bit of ACCREDIT and SKATEBOARD, where “stagecoach” fitted the first four checkers I had.
I tried to be clever by banging in “Linnaeus” for a 8 letter scientist starting with L.
COD AIR QUOTES
30:29. Stuck at the end on the same three as our blogger and others. Before getting 5dn CARRIER PIGEON, I had distracted myself by seeing that MICRODOT fitted at 4ac and STAGECOACH at 14ac. Once 5dn finally went in, ACCREDIT and SKATEBOARD swiftly followed (despite the unknown Ollie). I liked MOUSTACHE
Held up by LOI ACCREDIT but completed the rest more quickly than the QC today. Know some skateboarding terminology as grew up in 70/80s and my son spent hours trying to perfect an ollie. NHO peon though. Nice to finish even though it was a very gentle one. Thanks for the blog.
45:21 I don’t aspire to the times that other contributers achieve. Just happy to finish while there’s still daylight. Happy to see that I had the same stumbling blocks as the rest – SKATEBOARD, ACCREDIT and CARRIER PIGEON.
5:53. On the wavelength again. Are we sure this isn’t a competition puzzle?
27:40 – with several minutes lost at the end trying to come up with SKATEBOARD. Otherwise no major problems. Biffed CARRIER PIGEON from the checkers. Not come across PEON before. I know my capitals, so no problem with ACCREDIT.
I enjoyed this puzzle, a nice mix of easy-ish clues and ones that took a lot of unravelling.
Like glh and a few others, I was left at the end with SKATEBOARD, CARRIER PIGON and ACCREDIT. SKATEBOARD suddenly came to me, initially from the word play and then because, from some recess of my brain, I recalled that an “ollie” was a skateboarding move; I’m not sure why/how or exactly what an “ollie” is; I have zero interest in skateboarding. Having got that, I immediately saw CARRIER PIGEON and ACCREDIT from the checkers and they obviously parsed.
Not sure how long it took – about 20 minutes, half of which was spent on the last three above.
Another over whose head went Ollie! Didn’t stop me solving the clue. Took a while to see MOUSTACHE and AIR QUOTES. No problem with CUT TO THE CHASE. Held up at the end by ACCREDIT, which I failed to parse, and LOI SYNC. 23:57. Thanks setter and George.
33 mins. V easy till it wasn’t. Stuck for ages on SKATEBOARD. LOI SYNC, couldn’t work out the cryptic and had to come here. Big duh moment!
1964 “Grab a board and come sidewalk surfin’ with me” (Jan and Dean) I did, but that was years before the Ollie, and I think I first heard the term in reference to snowboarding half-pipe competition. It comes up a lot in US crosswords because when all letters cross, it has a lot of friendly characters. (If you YouTube Jan and Dean, do Beachboys “Catch a Wave”, 1963, first).
At just under 15 min this was a personal best, and I liked some of the cute definitions.
45 minutes of which at least 10 spent on Skateboard – good puzzle, though – my favourites were Moustache and Shrink Wrap.
15.41. Gentle fare for a Thursday. Unapologetic biffing of ‘skateboard’ and ‘carrier pigeon’. Expect blood letting tomorrow.
25:17, with the same delays as others on SKATEBOARD (NHO Ollie) and my LOI ACCREDIT.
DNF in 35 minutes. I was slow in the same places as everyone else but I just couldn’t see SYNC. I never skateboarded but I wasted some time with Tony Hawk’s Skateboarding so I know ollie, though I still spent a while trying to fit some kind of spacecraft in. Thanks glh.
I was held up at the end by SKATEBOARD. Once I got the answer I remembered what an Ollie is, but I was going down the Laurel and Hardy rathole. I’ve never heard of THE CHASE, but it’s one of those things where you get the answer and then reverse engineer that there must be a TV show of that name. No time since I went to sleep with SKATEBOARD still blank, and then filled it in ten seconds this morning.
FOI IMPAIR
LOI SKATEBOARD (what a surprise)
But just right for me. Enjoyed it. Liked SHRINKWRAP and MOUSTACHE.
I knew what an Ollie was and SKATEBOARD went straight in, I’m so street innit mandem.
Another finish, wow, 15:24, double wow. Thanks George.
A poor 24’06”. SNITCH suggests I should have been much quicker. That’s twice in a row. And … I was just mistaken for my daughter’s grandfather. Need some elixir.