Time taken: 7:51. I was pretty quickly on the wavelength of the setter, and the early solvers have some pretty slick times (at the time of starting the blog I’m sitting at #3, that will change).
There’s a fair few biffable answers here, but after a couple of silly typos and made up words earlier in the week (ASSEREVATE, anyone?), I wanted to make sure I had everything sorted out on blog day. There’s a lot to enjoy here, how did you find it?
| Across | |
| 1 | Reportedly detects change in Washington? (5) |
| CENTS – homophone of SCENTS(detects) | |
| 4 | Awful writing perhaps in Old English message (9) |
| EXECRABLE – R(writing is one of the three R’s) inside EX(old), E(English), CABLE(message) | |
| 9 | Fight cancelled in US — kill ticket seller (3,6) |
| BOX OFFICE – BOX(fight), OFF(cancelled), ICE(kill in the US) | |
| 10 | Revolutionary work gathered speed (5) |
| TEMPO – OP(work) and MET(gathered), all reveresed | |
| 11 | Stress at home — little sibling tense (6) |
| INSIST – IN(at home), SIS(little sibling), T(tense) | |
| 12 | Loud organ: two notes terrifying (8) |
| FEARSOME – F(loud), EAR(organ) and then the musical notes SO and ME | |
| 14 | High and low part missing with spoiled print (10) |
| LITHOGRAPH – anagram of HIGH,LOW and PART minus W(with) | |
| 16 | Book last character in time (4) |
| EZRA – Z(last character in the alphabet) inside ERA(time) | |
| 19 | Journey starts in The Rip, ends in the outback (4) |
| TREK – first letters of The Rip and the last of thE outbacK | |
| 20 | Axe penetrates once he’s splintered shield (10) |
| ESCUTCHEON – CUT(axe) inside an anagram of ONCE,HE’S. One of the words burned into my memory by its use in David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest, where it is one of the components of a game of Eschaton. | |
| 22 | City in which a friend curtailed addiction? (3,5) |
| ABU DHABI – A, BUD(friend) then HABIT(addiction) minus the last letter | |
| 23 | Have no users partially connected to vital supply network (6) |
| VENOUS – hidden inside haVE NO USers | |
| 26 | Letters inside shelter disturbed woman (5) |
| ETHEL – anagram of the central letters of sHELTEr | |
| 27 | No change in state active under cover of darkness (9) |
| NOCTURNAL – NO, then TURN(change) inside CAL(state) | |
| 28 | Content to defend a Murdoch mocked (9) |
| SATIRISED – SATED(content) containing the author IRIS Murdoch | |
| 29 | Almost losing lead in advance (5) |
| EARLY – NEARLY(almost) minus the first letter | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Oomph in something like rented carriage (9) |
| CABRIOLET – BRIO(oomph) inside CA(circa, something like), LET(rented) | |
| 2 | Linked group crossed lines in New England? (5) |
| NEXUS – X(a shape made by two crossed lines) inside NE US(New England is the north-eastern states) | |
| 3 | Sentimental weakness seconds frequently notice (4,4) |
| SOFT SPOT – S(seconds), OFT(frequently), SPOT(notice) | |
| 4 | Osprey finally leaving nest for lake (4) |
| ERIE – remove the last letter of ospreY from EYRIE(nest) | |
| 5 | American after team place for test (6-4) |
| ELEVEN-PLUS – US(American) after ELEVEN(team), PL(place) | |
| 6 | Slow down on time machine saving lives (6) |
| RETARD – RE(on), then TARDIS(Dr Who’s time machine) minus IS(lives) | |
| 7 | Puzzle book retired mum left, consumed by drink (9) |
| BAMBOOZLE – B(book), then MA(mum) reversed, and L(left) inside BOOZE(drink) | |
| 8 | Grind down before accepting arrangement with bank (5) |
| ERODE – ERE(before) containing OD(overdraft, arrangement with bank) | |
| 13 | Image associated with skull vexed surgeon (10) |
| CROSSBONES – CROSS(vexed), BONES(surgeon) | |
| 15 | Engine hurling stones but three caught somehow (9) |
| TREBUCHET – anagram of BUT,THREE and C(caught) | |
| 17 | Frequently visits topless consort — fair game? (4,5) |
| AUNT SALLY – HAUNTS(frequently visits) minus the first letter, then ALLY(consort) | |
| 18 | Programme dropped Christmas broadcast (8) |
| SCHEDULE – homophone of SHED(dropped) and YULE(broadcast). The homophone might not work in parts of the world where the C is not silent | |
| 21 | Salt gathering in massive quarry? (6) |
| WHALER – cryptic definition | |
| 22 | Partners in crime with Abraham and Eliot? (5) |
| ABETS – ABE(Abraham) and TS Eliot | |
| 24 | Single run stopped by wicket keeper (5) |
| OWNER – ONE(single), R(run) containing W(wicket) | |
| 25 | Missile beginning to climb in south of France (4) |
| SCUD – first letter of Climb inside SUD(South in French) | |
19:23, for the first puzzle I managed to finish this week. I’ve done pretty well on all of them but there was always a clue or two that did me in. This time it could have been WHALER and SCHEDULE but I made good guesses. Was able to parse SCHEDULE after the fact. Don’t know where in my brain I found CABRIOLET, ELEVEN-PLUS, and ESCUTCHEON. We had CENT just yesterday, I believe.
I’ve not done too badly this week – 3 out of 4 complete – but I have been experiencing a lot of DNFs of late (only 2 finished last week). I wonder if the puzzles have got harder under the new editor.
1950 for me
ELEVRN-PLUS was a new one on me, and quite similarly to yesterday’s unknown, SPEECH DAY. Still, I made excellent (unclocked) time.
The ELEVEN PLUS was a test for children in the last year of primary school (aged 10-11) to separate children into two groups – grammar school and so-called secondary modern. Thus large numbers of people had their life chances stymied. It was a piece of social engineering which had its origins in the ‘science’ of Cyril Burt, who claimed that ‘intelligence’ did not change after the age of eleven. After he died it was found that he’d fiddled his research results to fit his own theory. The exam in various forms is still used in those areas, like Birmingham, which have grammar schools, but is only taken by those aspiring to go to the schools.
The test was abolished in the London area in 1964, so I just missed it.
I took it in ‘63!
I took it in 1969!
’63 for me too.
1959 for me, pity they dropped it.
1959 for me, too. They still have this in our neck of the woods. My son failed this exam and went to the local comprehensive before gaining a top first-class degree. My daughter went to the grammar school but did less well at university.
I took it in the London Borough of Redbridge in 1983 or 1984, I think, and passed, allowing me into Ilford County High School, so I suppose it must depend on one’s definition of “London”. All that intelligence still didn’t let me figure out WHALER today, though.
Eleven plus is still going strong in Sutton, where there are still 4 grammar schools, so presumably also in other parts of the country also. Not sure about the social engineering bit, but it seems very noticeable that Sutton has no fee paying schools that I know of, while its neighbour Croydon has a bunch of them.
Me too in 64. I think it was the old London County Council that abolished it, which from memory was just the inner boroughs. At least that’s the name on my swimming certificates!
I took mine in 1959 also and much to my parents relief went to the grammar school. From memory, I think the test was maybe set in two papers taken on separate days, and was almost in the form of a junior Mensa test, with questions such as ‘what number comes next in this sequence’ etc.
1958! That puts me in the lead so far.
sorry mate. 1955. Passed but turned down grammar school owing to travel sickness, but had 4 of the best years of my life at secondary modern..
1997 for me. I feel like a baby. It’s still a thing in my old neck of the woods.
Missed out in South London in 1976. All three of my children went to grammars – one in Salisbury and two in Lancaster where there is both a boys and a girls school.
It still exists in Kent and Buckinghamshire and elsewhere. I know because my wife and I tutor children for it.
However it continues in some counties. My niece and nephew have both taken it. One passed, one didn’t
I had to resit it in what must have been ’64 because that’s when I was 11. I was living in East Ham in London. Fortunately I passed and went to Grammar school.
19:43
I thought of SCHEDULE when I had a couple of checkers, but could make nothing of it until I remembered the UK pronunciation. I was surprised to find that I knew TREBUCHET.
Steady solve in about 45 minutes. FOI FEARSOME. NHO ELEVEN-PLUS so needed to look it up. Some tricky definitions.
Thanks G
I couldn’t parse many of the clues, but finished anyway. The unparsed list: schedule, nexus, cabriolet, nocturnal, lithograph. I had enough UK knowledge to biff eleven plus, but I only parsed it much later. I did like escutcheon, which was very elusive even though I saw the parsing immediately.
Time: 44:03
42 minutes. WHALER was my LOI as I was looking for wordplay where there isn’t any.
LITHOGRAPH came easily enough from definition and checkers but I never resolved the wordplay because I saw ‘high / LIT’ and could see nowhere to go with the rest of it. No doubt on a blogging day I’d have tried a bit harder and spotted the anagram.
LITHOGRAPH was my LOI due to seeing LIT = HIGH, until I had a rethink!
I found this pretty tough and made it tougher all by myself. On coming here I find that my LOI, VENOUS, was a simple hidden and LITHOGRAPH was a very clever anagram, as was ETHEL (I thought I needed to find a disturbed woman). Didn’t see the Tardis, thought ‘on time’ gave RET and wondered what ARD had to do with a life-saving machine. Finished in 39.24 but still have no idea about WHALER, which I guessed. Thanks g.
From Sugar Baby:
Some of these bootleggers, they make pretty good stuff
Plenty of places to hide things here if you wanna hide ’em bad enough
I’m staying with AUNT SALLY, but you know she’s not really my aunt
Some of these memories you can learn to live with, and some of them you can’t
Dnf, I found this hard, took about 25′ and didn’t get RETARD at all. ABU DHABI, TREBUCHET were excellent clues. WHALER was LOI.
Thanks george and setter.
11:41. I was pleased to have the slightly unusual words in my vocabulary today – ESCUTCHEON, TREBUCHET and LITHOGRAPH – which meant I was able to semi-biff them rather than fully work them out from the cryptic.
I finished with WHALER which had me pretty well stumped until the penny dropped. Nice CD.
I can thank Age of Empires for TREBUCHET. It’s also previously helped with BALLISTA.
Again a few somewhat unusual words, but I had a far easier time of it than I did yesterday. This felt more wholesome, or generous, in its wordplay. It took me 24 minutes.
I particularly liked the crossed lines for X, and the Murdoch clue had me chuckling at its seeming bravery. Much to enjoy as glh says, with my COD the wonderfully misleading WHALER.
35 mins with LOI WHALER holding me up a bit.
A few unparsed as mentioned above so ta to our blogger.
I liked BAMBOOZLE, great word, and CROSSBONES.
Thanks G and (maybe our US?) setter.
32 minutes with LOI a not totally understood WHALER. COD to SATIRISED. I can remember a delivery guy on hearing my Lancashire accent at the front door of our very middle class house asking what would I have been if I had been ill on the day of the 11 plus. I didn’t know how the answer then and I don’t know now, but I doubt I’d be doing the Times crossword. Good puzzle. Thank you George and setter.
I was ill on the day of my Manchester Grammar School entrance exam, so my chance of entering that prestigious establishment was lost. However, I did pass my ELEVEN-PLUS and made it to Grammar School – and never had the required degree of application to progress further, leaving at 16 despite passing 7 O Levels. The “what would I have been” question can therefore be viewed in a different context.
Phil, do you think you would have fared differently at MGS? I went to King George V School, Southport( KGV) The Headmaster’s party piece was to recount a conversation after someone told him that they considered KGV to be on a par with MGS. He’d replied that this was very flattering… “to MGS.” It got me into Oxford.But Southport was very middle class and the grammar school had to be good.
I rather doubt it. I was cursed with an attitude problem – I knew I was brighter than many, and didn’t feel I needed to prove it. By the time I grew out of it in my late 20’s I had a family and it wasn’t practicable to pick up the pieces.
50′, which seemed a long time now I look at the answers. Some only partially parsed (is there a glossary term for “half-parsed”, maybe sounds like.. ?). Still don’t get WHALER, salt yes, but not the gathering. Took me ages to see ABU DHABI and VENOUS. Happy to get there whilst not on the wavelength. Thanks George and setter
Hi Gerry. The whaler ‘gathers in’ the quarry.
33 minutes, I had all but SCHEDULE and WHALER in 25 minutes but then spent ages staring at those last two until I suddenly thought of yule for Xmas and -ULE and then SCHEDULE came quickly, and then it was like my brain had unblocked and WHALER came immediately.
This puzzle wasn’t super-hard but I’m still stunned that it’s within human capability to solve it in 7 minutes!!! Huge kudos to today’s blogger for that 🙂
Thankd to setter and blogger as always
22:40. COD: BOX OFFICE
DNF. Resorted to an alphabet trawl to find WHALER after about 40 minutes all at sea.
Old enough to have sat (and passed) the 11+ and become a ‘grammar grub’ – then wasted the space.
Nice to be able to get the old CABRIOLET out as we don’t seem to be plying the carriageways so often nowadays.
Fair enough.
Thanks to setter and glh.
19:18
Having pieced together EXECRABLE, ESCUTCHEON, and TREBUCHET it was the relatively simple words of RETARD and WHALER which caused the most difficulty. Otherwise a fairly steady solve where I avoided traps I’d previously fallen into.
Thanks to both.
DNF, defeated by WHALER – I kept trying to fit something meaning massive into something meaning a sailor.
No other problems, though even after getting LITHOGRAPH it took me a while to see how it worked.
Thanks glh and setter.
COD Escutcheon
I did a fair amount of biffing, and needed George’s blog to understand how CABRIOLET and EXECRABLE worked. Fortunately I had all the necessary vocabulary for this enjoyable puzzle, where I started very slowly, but wrapped things up very quickly at the finish.
Does anyone name their baby daughter ETHEL nowadays?
FOI EZRA
LOI WHALER
COD RETARD
TIME 12:36
Ethel has been out for so long that it’s likely to become the latest name craze at any moment.
Failed on WHALER. Still not seeing it can someone give me the idiot explanation?
ELEVEN PLUS follows SPEECH DAY yesterday. It’s like being back at school. I passed mine in 1997 since others are revealing it above.
BAMBOOZLE is one of my favourite words so I am glad to have got that quickly.
AUNT SALLY took some getting as I think I’ve ever only used the phrase in its figurative context.
I liked the hidden VENOUS so that gets COD
Thanks blogger and setter.
A ‘salt’ is a sailor, and one hunting for a massive ‘quarry’ could be a whaler – i.e. a sailor who, if successful, will gather in something massive.
It’s quite a devious one. I tried putting TAR around… something, or justifying CHOLER (maybe it’s a salt; maybe a quarry is a massive HOLE?!). Needed to look away then look back to spot a word that would fit, then the ‘aha’ moment came.
Cheers that makes a lot of sense. I actually put CHOLER in the end without much conviction.
First DNF of the week, running out of steam in the SE, but of “grid fatigue” I guess.
I knew ESCUTCHEON from playing General Stanley in Pirates of Penzance, “ dishonor on the family escutcheon”, at age 11. Our G& S mad headmaster put the whole school through a full production when we should have been practicing for the ELEVEN PLUS. not sure I’ve heard it since (along with Marlinspike)
COD CROSSBONES
Ha! What an appropriate role! With all the academic knowledge General Stanley had, he should have aced the elevens plus.
He knows what is meant by “mamelon” and “ravelin”, so should be well set up for Cryptic Crossword vocabulary.
But he doesn’t!
10:48. One of those where words kept popping into my head without much conscious thought. Muscle memory I suppose. Held up slightly at the end by WHALER which is often the case with CDs – my least favourite clue type.
55m 37s
I worked for an American airline for 20 years so I came to pronounce the word as SKEDULE.
I always pronounced it SKEDULE, knowing there were two ways and unknowingly pronouncing it the US way. I guess it was a word I didn’t use (or hear) very much.
OTOH, I had to ask my daughter what her American friend who came to dinner meant when she was talking at length about her ‘schedule.’ I thought she was talking about a timetable for something coming up, but it turned out it is commonly used Stateside to mean the plan for one’s life.
Go fig!
In my experience ‘skedule’ is more the common form in English English these days. Certainly my kids say it, but then they say ‘gotten’ so who knows.
👍
A steady 25 minutes, ending with VENOUS which I didn’t see was a hidden word until came here. I liked the homophone schedule and the WHALER. Good puzzle no complaints.
Got off to a good start with INSIST FOI, followed rapidly by SOFT SOAP, BOX OFFICE, CABRIOLET and NEXUS. The rest of the top half came along nicely, apart from my guessing 6d started with RIT, which slowed me down until I spotted TARD(is). The lower half needed more concentration. The arrival of CROSSBONES unlocked it nicely, leading to ESCUTCHEON and NOCTURNAL which then yielded AUNT SALLY. LOI, LITHOGRAPH took a while as I was distracted by LIT = high, until I noticed all the anagrist. 22:31. Thanks setter and George.
Found this easier than the Quickie, beating my target by a couple of minutes.
17:24
9:59. I usually check my answers but when the clock is ticking towards the 10-minute mark like this I just cross my fingers and submit. There is no rational justification for this.
I think lots of the people one meets who can’t do the Times crossword could perfectly well do so if they had the vocabulary. There are several words here that are less than common: VENOUS, ESCUTCHEON, TREBUCHET, CABRIOLET, RETARD, NEXUS and no doubt others. 45 minutes after struggling as many did with WHALER, and not parsing NEXUS properly, thinking that ‘us’ referred to England and wondering how ‘New’ could give ‘ne’.
I have spent quite a lot of time trying to teach my kids how to do cryptics and I can assure you that vocabulary is absolutely not the problem!
So are you saying that they know the meanings of these words? If so they must be very intelligent children.
The last couple of days I’ve entered quite a few words that I’ve never come across before but I’ve worked out the correct answer from the cryptic. No doubt Magoo sees “shield” (10) and almost instantaneously writes in ESCUTCHEON, but people like me have to solve the more obscure words like mathematical equations. I think the barrier to most people getting on with cryptic crosswords isn’t their vocabulary but the knowledge of how to break up the word salad into it’s constituent bits. Personally I’m a big fan of a crosswords having a sprinkling of the exotica.
This chimes with my experience. A good vocabulary (whether for synonyms in the wordplay, or the definition) of course helps – but I typically see beginners fixate on the surface meaning, or on a particular word in the clue, or sometimes on a particular parse that turns out to be wrong.
My technique is to quite quickly try to spot either the most likely definition, and/or the most likely indicator, either of which help me to understand what’s happening in the clue. So if I see “in” before a longish string of letters, I’ll scan them to see if something’s hidden, or if I see a likely anagrind, I’ll see what the fodder probably is, and consequently what’s left must be the definition, etc. It’s usually fairly intuitive now, but I still go back to a more manual process if stuck. And of course, it’s of little help for clues like WHALER!
I still remember how much of a breakthrough it felt when I started to fairly confidently come up with completely NHOs from the wordplay – there have been quite a few this week.
Agreed on all counts!
Obviously my children are exceptionally intelligent but no, what I am saying is that they can’t solve cryptics even when the vocabulary is extremely basic.
My LOI WHALER too far too long. I hate it when the last clue has a question mark at the end since it means you are not going to just do simple wordplay. And when I did an alphabet trawl, W was not the letter I thought would drop into place (I was on the lookout for P but nothing would fit).
40 minutes – it would have been 30 minutes if not for Execrable and Retard. I could see it must be Execrable but I couldn’t see the parsing.
Very nice puzzle overall and I’ll give my COD to my LOI “Retard”.
Gave up with WHALER missing after 45 mins. Might have got it if I’d resorted to the alphabet trawl, but couldn’t be arsed. Liked this in general.
30 mins, but with RETARD unparsed. Never was a fan of The Doctor, and doubtless will be caught by references to the TARDIS in future. The Doctor, of course, will already know that.
28 mins – found this tough, spotting WHALER just before calling it a day. More than the usual number unparsed, including the much-aforementioned RETARD and SATIRISED.
24 mins, but had to use my Scrabble help for -H-L-R, there were 4 options and I don’t think I’d have ever got WHALER without it.
Quite a nice puzzle, perhaps slightly easier average than but with enough quirks to keep it interesting. I did think WHALER was a poor clue, though, one of those you hesitate to write in until you’ve tried to think of alternatives because the solution looks too clunky to be correct.
But then for crossword folks salt is a sailor, and quarry is prey more generally. I thought the misdirection of the salt mines was rather good.
I understand that, I just personally still think it’s a clunky clue. One thought I had was “perhaps I haven’t fully parsed this and once I have it will turn out to be a better clue than I think”. But none of the subsequent explanations told me anything I hadn’t already worked out.
Hours after commenting, and having read all the comments, including the ‘explanations’, I still have no idea about WHALER. Yeah I get salt, I get quarry, but…ah, forget it. Not on my list of million favourite clues.
Done in two sessions so no specific time to report. Most of the clues were solved before going out, but two had stopped me in my tracks. Typically when taking it up after a break on my return, the answers came instantly, and ETHEL and finally WHALER were entered. About thirty or so minutes for an easier than average puzzle.
42:20. WHALERva long time to finish that particular clue… nothing else seemed to slip through the net and I plodded through. Some fun vocabulary (can’t recall last time I used ESCUTCHEON in anger). Great puzzle.
Didn’t “Blot on escutcheon” appear from time to time in “1066 and All That”?
No problems with this puzzle – what happened to tricky Thursday?
I’m sure Tricky Thursday will be back soon. Maybe the editor messed up and thought this was Z’s week.
42:07, with time at the end staring at WHALER before the penny finally dropped.
COD to CROSSBONES.
Thanks glh and setter
Thank you glh & setter.
5d Eleven plus. I took mine in 1960 and Worcestershire sent me to a public school as the grammar school was too small.
21d Whaler, cheated, thought it was a boat (it is), entered it then realised we are talking Cap’n Ahab and his men, not the boat his men used. DOH. Was introduced to the whaler when in the Naval section of the CCF. Ghastly boat; heavy and stable, oar powered in the main. That is because the sails were rubbish.
22d Abets. Foxed me until I realised that “partners” is a verb.
Coming late to this, but if there’s a competition, I took the 11+ in 1955.
Passed. But DNF today because I didn’t get the Tardis reference (never watched) nor the cryptic definition of whaler
Finished in several sittings but the first one I’ve done in quite a while without the odd sneaky reveal. I still needed the blog to parse a few but was delighted to find both ESCUTCHEON and TREBUCHET lurking in my brain somewhere. Got WHALER quite quickly but the one that held me up the most was OWNER, of all things. Didn’t spot that VENOUS was a hidden 🙄 Loved RETARD. Many thanks glh.
Briefly held up by putting EMMA for EZRA, convincing myself that EMMA was NATO-talk for the letter ‘e’ (last character in time). BAMBOOZLE set me right. Thought the WHALER clue was excellent because it sent us all down a blind alley. I spent a good few minutes on a chemical salt spelled *H*L*R. I’m still half-convinced that one exists. Phalar? 19’21”. Many thanks.
1 hour. Got stuck on BONES part of CROSSBONES which was inexcusable. (Star Trek – was Scottie also referred to as Bones?) WHALER also troublesome, spent time trying to fit usual sailor words esp. TAR in there. Amazing people can complete these in like 5 minutes – could spend 10m on one clue alone. Just got to keep practising!
18.28
Late entry, just back from a first visit to the Gower. Impressed with there and this puzzle, which like Ulaca I did as quickly word for word as the Quickie. Go fig (love that, thankee Keriothe).
For once I thought the cryptic WHALER was very good but the eyes do need to be screwed quite tightly to get it.
Otherwise seemed to know the vocab though I wouldn’t say I was particularly well read. On the other hand if you are in your fifties; went to Grammar school; did Classics and like cricket you are 99% of the way there with these things.
Thanks setter/George
78 minutes! All parsed except for LOI SCHEDULE, which took twenty minutes by itself. According to the Snitch, the puzzles have all been quite gentle this week, but this seemed very much harder. Then again, I can’t stop yawning so it’s probably me. Thanks glh.
LOI WHALER and I’m definitely in the camp with those who didn’t think much of this clue. Anyway, all’s well in the end so I’m still a happy bunny, especially because I thought there was some tricky stuff here (though not for our blogger clearly).