I had all bar 3 down in less than 20 minutes, but had to bail out, since I hadn’t memorised the spelling of the imaginary castle.
Despite that, I thought this was a fun little number. Possibly, a good one in terms of constructions for those contemplating a move to the main cryptic from the Quickie, but with some tricky vocab. So, don’t despair if you have a go, but can’t lick it! [edited in light of early comments]
| Across | |
| 1 | Composer with worry over French region (8) |
| BERGERAC – [Alban] BERG CARE reversed | |
| 6 | Ton added to gold in room a shock (6) |
| TRAUMA – T (ton) AU in RM A (from the clue) | |
| 9 | Bishop and religious fraternity row about stray dog (6,7) |
| BORDER TERRIER – B ORDER ERR in TIER | |
| 10 | Ship carrying blubber passes swiftly (6) |
| SWEEPS – WEEP (cry, blubber) in SS | |
| 11 | American descendant touring one foreign capital (8) |
| ASUNCION – A (American) UN (one foreign, here French) in SCION (descendant); Asunción is the capital of Paraguay | |
| 13 | Robbing criminal barged in to bag silver (10) |
| BRIGANDAGE – AG in anagram* of BARGED IN | |
| 15 | First couple expelled from country paradise (4) |
| EDEN – |
|
| 16 | Work always around for lauded artist (4) |
| GOYA – GO (work) AY (always) reversed; altogether now, ‘Let us, with a gladsome mind, praise the Lord, for he is kind: For his mercies ay endure, ever faithful, ever sure’ | |
| 18 | Substantial cardinal sin brought about court action (4,6) |
| REAL TENNIS – REAL (substantial) TEN (cardinal number) SIN reversed | |
| 21 | Reportedly deficient characteristic in vivid description (8) |
| PORTRAIT – POR (sounds like poor: to some people – calm down!) TRAIT | |
| 22 | Mental model found in Nietzsche, maybe (6) |
| SCHEMA – hidden; hopefully, everyone’s feeling better now | |
| 23 | Working to a Greek character always, who might do better? (13) |
| UNDERACHIEVER – UNDER (working to) A CHI EVER; Collins has ‘subject to the control, limitations, government, direction, instruction or influence of’ for under, as in ‘under orders’, and that’s the best I can do you for | |
| 25 | Commercial to air in time prior to Christmas (6) |
| ADVENT – AD VENT | |
| 26 |
Footballer put off allowing goal in (8)
|
| DEFENDER – END in DEFER | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Shelter soldiers from south capturing missile launcher (7) |
| EMBOWER – BOW in REME (Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, which my Dad was in) | |
| 3 | Castle of the Groans — lead characters in magnificent gothic novel (11) |
| GORMENGHAST – THE GROANS M~ G~* (‘novel’ is the anagram indicator); I had the anagrist, but hadn’t memorised the word from the last time it came up (in the comments to a puzzle less than a month ago). Never read Peake, obvs. Gormenghast was the second novel in the series, Titus Groan being the first. So the anagram fodder is pretty clever. | |
| 4 | Athenians for example denied their capital stinks (5) |
| REEKS – |
|
| 5 | Ancient instrument — store it in cleaner area (7) |
| CITHARA – IT in CHAR (cleaner, AKA Mrs Mop) A (area); a lute-like thing played on Greek vases (also kithara) | |
| 6 | Swirling dry northerly heading for Urals fast (9) |
| TURBULENT – BRUT reversed U~ LENT | |
| 7 | Old Islamic leader calls in periodically (3) |
| ALI – |
|
| 8 | Kit the writer debased in unpleasant experience (7) |
| MARLOWE – LOW (debased) in MARE (unpleasant experience); Christopher (Kit) Marlowe was a contemporary of Shakespeare, whose work includes Tamburlaine the Great, which I had to sit through as a schoolboy. A high body-count, as I remember.. | |
| 12 | Scours harbour — having lost walrus? (5-6) |
| CLEAN-SHAVEN – CLEANS (scours) HAVEN (harbour); a walrus is a type of moustache, famously favoured by golfer Craig Stadler, who was eponymous with his facial hair | |
| 14 | Rodent warranty altered to protect duck (6,3) |
| NORWAY RAT – O in WARRANTY*; never heard of this, even though I’ve been to Norway. Beautiful place – will return. Reading the Wikipedia entry, very much a case of mistaken identity. However, the Norwegians need something to keep them humble after finding they were sitting on all that oil after being the butt of Swedish and Danish jokes for so long. Also known as the common rat, street rat and sewer rat – among other things. | |
| 17 | Old barrel brought into bar sounding full (7) |
| OROTUND – O TUN in ROD; the word means resonant of voice or pompous of writing, but I can never think of it as meaning anything but fat. I should be ashamed – or shamed? | |
| 19 | Stomach calmer in colonist, perhaps on powerful drug (7) |
| ANTACID – ANT ACID (LSD – those setters love their narcotics) | |
| 20 | Dip in northwestern river curtailed after one minute (7)) |
| IMMERSE – I (one) M (minute) MERSE |
|
| 22 | Glide across water with doubled force in boat (5) |
| SKIFF – SKI (glide across water – if the snow’s melted, I guess#) FF (fortissimo); # just joking | |
| 24 |
No power in bass for Flower of Scotland (3)
|
| DEE – DEE |
|
34 minutes with ASUNCION taking up the last 6 of them. I was going to say I never heard of the capital of Paraguay but an archive search revealed that it appeared here once before in a mainstream puzzle as recently as January this year when I also didn’t know it.
The words ‘French region’ in a clue fill me with dread so I approached 1ac with low expectations. I was just about to cheat and check whether BACH,ERAC might one such province when it occurred to me that the TV detective BERGERAC was probably given that name for a reason. Then I thought of Alban BERG and that clinched it.
I’d say my knowledge of ancient musical instruments is pretty good but I’ve never heard of CITHARA making its debut here today. I had considered CITTERN for a while but was unable to justify it from the wordplay which eventually led me to the correct (but unknown) answer.
38.15, held up for quite a while by my last few including the Kit Marlowe ref, EMBOWER and BERGERAC. Also I had to hunt down the culprit when I got the Unlucky! message and eventually found I had mysteriously spelt SCHEMA with an E on the end. Thanks U.
From Temporary Like Achilles:
Kneeling ’neath your ceiling, yes I guess I’ll be here for a while
I’m trying to read your PORTRAIT but I’m helpless like a rich man’s child
How come you send someone out to have me barred?
You know I want your loving,
Honey why are you so hard?
I had scheme as well. No excuses as it’s a hidden clue. I’m just glad I’m in good company.
Me too 🙁
About 20 minutes solving on paper with no major issues until I was held up by MARLOWE in the end. However, I fell foul of the easiest clue in the bunch having blithely entered SCHEME without a second thought.
A nice start to the week so thanks to both.
39 minutes with LOI the unheard-of CITHARA. COD to MARLOWE. A reasonably friendly start to the week. Thank you U and setter.
36 minutes without aids or typos for once. Very challenging in places. NHO CITHARA but suspect it might reappear. Quite forgotten that MARLOWE was known as Kit. UNDERACHIEVER came to mind all too easily. LOI ASUNCION, of course.
Thanks to setter and U.
About 25 minutes.
– Took a while to remember that BERGERAC is a region as well as a detective
– Only vaguely knew of GORMENGHAST
– Trusted the wordplay for CITHARA
– Likewise didn’t know the NORWAY RAT, but the wordplay and checkers made it clear enough
Thanks ulaca and setter.
FOI Eden
LOI Gormenghast
COD Clean-shaven
7:43. Fingers crossed for the crossing CITHARA and ASUNCION: they seemed unambiguously right from the wordplay but I couldn’t shake the feeling that they might be something else.
After doing it for weeks this site has suddenly decided to stop logging me out. I’m still getting the 500 error all the time but I shall be thankful for small mercies.
25:42 but
I looked up the castle; i knew (of) the Groans but no idea of the castle. Took a long time to figure out what TERRIER, and another long time to get beyond Bacherac. Put CITHARA in confidently, was surprised not to find it in ODE, LOI PORTRAIT, guess why.
DNF, fell at the last two, the Castle and the writer. Another error 505 today to start off with but persistence got me here eventually.
Low on anagrams today and not really my type of crossie. Oh well.
Thanks U and setter.
I enjoyed this A good mix of fairly straightforward stuff with some new words -EMBOWER, CITHARA, NORWAY RAT -and some witty cluing CLEAN SHAVEN, UNDER ACHIEVER, REAL TENNIS.
Thanks to Ulaca and the setter
I was on holiday last week (Arles) and I still find there are problems with the app on my mobile phone. Can someone please tell me the best point of contact for reporting these.
What app? TfTT isn’t an app, just a standard website you use a browser to access. If you want to report a problem with it there is a contact page under “help,” above. If it’s anything to do with error 500 They are only too aware of the problem and are doing their best to get it fixed by the ISP.
The app I was referring to is the The Times Newspaper app. When I go to the puzzles on my android phone, I can acces the cryptics but when I try to access the Crossword Club I get a screen telling me to log in or subscribe ( this after already having logged in). If I try to log in again, I get stuck in a loop with this “subscribe” screen continually re-appearing.
A first world problem obviously but still a tad irritating.
Thanks for pointing me to the contact page. I’ll try them
Not sure if it helps, but on my iPad I use the separate ‘Times Puzzles’ app (as well as the main newspaper app) and it works fine
Thanks. That does work on Android but doesn’t give me access to the Crossword Club.
16.31 I was going to say that solving this felt a very unmonday-ish experience, with some Friday level wordplay in places and TLS insider knowledge required for “Kit” and the castle. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, with such as “losing walrus” and “poor trait” prompting a smile.
I was almost caught out by entering CITHERA, which seemed familiar, but made ASUNCION impossible and last in. I realised in time that Char was unlikely to be a cleaner.
I look forward to delighted comments from newcomers to the Bigger Brother.
30 mins. Not sure I will be recommending this to Mrs rv, a QCer who does venture into these. There were several trust-the-wp constructions I was very relieved to see turn green. A bit like me this AM.
TV detectives and sitcoms helped but it doesn’t matter where the GK comes from.
COD CLEANSHAVEN. Thanks Ulaca and setter.
No time as phone calls kept getting in the way, but definitely not a typical Monday. The top half felt much trickier with some unusual words and less than GK.
26:33
Interesting words, inventive clueing, notes as follows:
BORDER TERRIER – a TERRIER that begins with a B? – took me ages and needed all checkers to recall it
ASUNCION – LOI A_UNC_O_ – dredged up eventually
BRIGANDAGE – nice word, had to write out all of the letters
GORMENGHAST – didn’t spot the anagram, remembered (from previous puzzles) the Groans are something to do with Mervyn Peake, he wot wrote GORMENGHAST
NORWAY RAT – once I’d stumbled on the answer, knew it was right as The Stranglers first album was Rattus Norvegicus
CITHARA – NHO – followed the cryptic
COD to MARLOWE
Thanks U and setter
27:01 but most of that was in the NW corner I think let down by my vocab and in the case of GORMENGHAST my spelling. Started off badly, shot through the other three quadrants and then started doing badly again. Managed to eek it out in the end though.
Enjoyed CLEAN-SHAVEN
Thanks blogger and setter
A tricky one. Managed to work out all the unknowns, but ruined it with a careless SCHEME. Drat. 27,42 WOE. Thanks setter and U.
Annoyingly failed on two in an otherwise fairly straightforward puzzle. Geography is one of my weaknesses. I vaguely recognised BERGERAC and ASUNCION once I saw the solution but neither came to mind easily and I didn’t find the cryptics helpful. ELGAR fitted the checking letters for 1 across and I became fixated on the idea that he was the composer being referred to. In 11 I thought the definition was “foreign capital” and the one to be included was an i or possibly an a. I might have twigged my error if the descendant had been a little more obvious than scion.
17.34 – think this was a PB. Although it all went in quickly, there were some quite unusual words. I paused on GORMENGHAST for a moment wondering if it was so obvious a surface that I should actually be looking for something else e.g. FRANKENSTEIN. Fingers crossed for ASUNCION and OROTUND. Thankfully the footballer was only a DEFENDER and not someone from 1972 Bayern Munich side (or even the current one) that I would never have heard of. LOI PORTRAIT.
With Beckenbauer and Harry Kane, you might have been all right.
22.37
Good combo of gentle and tricky but not too tricky, though ASUNCION almost did for me.
A couple of footie clues in the Quickie and another here and a smooth one at that so COD to DEFENDER.
Thanks Ulaca and setter
No major problems, but a steadily declining speed and some silly delays, like a completely unnecessary difficulty in entering BORDER TERRIER even with all the checkers. In 16ac I couldn’t (and still can’t) see why GOYA is a lauded artist, except I suppose that he is. 39 minutes.
And this is the first time I’ve had a 500 error while posting. Fortunately I saved my words.
18:20 – big fan of the Peake trilogy so no problem with the castle and its very neat clue. Only minor stumble was CITHARA which I guessed as chitara until ASUNCION put paid to that.
Snap on CHITARA! CHITARRA is Italian for guitar. Also a strip-like pasta made by pressing large sheets through guitar strings. Border terrier was obvious, so the NHO CITHARA was soon in.
Slow on this one, held up by Cithara (thought it was spelt with a K), MARLOWE (didn’t know Christopher was known as Kit) and EMBOWER which seemed a bit ugly. I did know Asuncion was the capital, I (try to) know and remember all the world’s capitals and US state capitals for quizzes. 35 minutes.
Just under 40′. Not Mondayish at all for me. Slow start in the top half but bottom half yielded more. Some nice surfaces including the Walrus which also took me back to Mr Stadler. 1ac came after I saw the reversed “care”. That gave me “G” and although I’ve never read Peake I remembered the castle and spelling. A couple of NHOs which I was able to build from instructions.
Thanks Ulaca and setter.
My thanks to ulaca and setter.
Pretty easy, but I’m not so sure about it being suitable for starters, I had a lot in light pencil as not 100% confident.
1a Bergerac, I thought of the detective with his Triumph Roadster as well, prior to the Tom Barnaby detective in Midsomer Slaughters.
22a Schema, rescued from scheme by having been a database manager, in charge of the Schema and the subschemas.
1d Embower. My dad was in the REME as well. I still didn’t really believe in the word, but.
3d Gormenghast and Titus Groan added to Cheating Machine.
4d CithEra narrowly avoided by reading the clue. Odd spelling I think.
14d NHO Norway Rat but the anag wasn’t hard. Thought it might be a lemming, but no.
I was slow out of the blocks on this one, but eventually accelerated and finished in 22 minutes either side of a visit from the boiler man. Pleased to avoid the bear traps with CITHARA and SCHEMA. I biffed in GORMENGHAST as I remembered the recent exchanges on a previous clue involving the Peake novels. I also recall a recent reference to the dog, but that may not have been here. Never heard of the rat, but the anagrist left no choice. A pleasant Monday exercise.
FOI – SWEEPS
LOI – ASUNCION
COD – CLEAN-SHAVEN
Thanks to ulaca and other contributors.
15:35, enjoyed the slightly arcane feel of the crossword today. As I may have mentioned last time it came up, I’ve recently been reading Titus Groan, it’s highly immersive and enjoyable. I think I’ll go and read a chapter right now, in fact. Aside from that, I don’t think anybody has brought up ‘Rattus Norvegicus’ by The Stranglers, which was my only (dimly remembered) mental substantiation for the otherwise NHO Norway Rat. Thank you Ulaca and setter.
Enjoyed that. On the wavelength, sailed through without any problems. NHO Bergerac or CITHARA, but all else known and parsed. Down and Out in Beverly Hills featured giant Norwegian rats. Gormenghast a nice &lit, enjoyed the clue much more than the novels.
What happened to the Dark Mode switch?
DNF, several missing after an hour, but got some of the tough vocal which I had not heard of, CITHARA, OROTUND, GORMENGHAST.
COD REAL TENNIS
No undue problems today, having the requisite GK, though I thought it was Kithara. On investigation I find that it is, cithera is a latinised version of the Greek.
Nice to see Gormenghast, having ploughed through both Titus Groan and Gormenghast in my youth, some reward is due.
One of my favourite vineyards, Ch. Feely, is in Bergerac. https://chateaufeely.com/
18.57 for a chewy Monday. Dredged up Gormenghast eventually. Never read any of the books but seem to remember the paperback covers were a bit weird.LOI cithara.
The cover pictures were by the author himself.