Time: 62:48
Music: Brahms, Piano Concerto #2, Ax/Levine/CSO
I seem to have found this puzzle a lot harder than everyone else, but the leaderboard and the SNITCH seem to be surprisingly sparse. My first attempt was pretty hopeless, so I gave up and watched Chris Gotterup win the Sony Open. When I returned, as expected, I immediately saw several answers to clues that had been previously impenetrable. But even so, finishing the bottom half was a bit of a slog.
This was a really high-quality puzzle, and I enjoyed it once I managed to solve it. The clues for pest, staple, nervous wreck, siesta, prehistoric, and parentage were especially good and very inventive.
It seems like quite a few solvers have an error, and it is probably one I nearly made myself. If you carelessly biff aid for 24 down, the crossing answers will fit in nicely and you will never reconsider. However, there is no such thing as an haid meaning a joiner, so your answer doesn’t parse; I saw this immediately and tried again. This is definitely not the puzzle to try to rush.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Passed away drinking whisky? That’s sad (10) |
| DISPIRITED – DI(SPIRIT)ED. | |
| 7 | Trial at first prolonging time in Washington DC (4) |
| PEST – P[rolonging] + E.S.T, Eastern Standard Time, which we are now on here on the East coast. | |
| 9 | Managed to stop former Tory leader ranting (8) |
| HARANGUE – HA(RAN)GUE. Hague is probably not well remembered nowadays, particularly by overseas solvers, but he did ring a vague bell. | |
| 10 | Odd country club occasion cut short (6) |
| UNEVEN – U.N. + EVEN[t]. | |
| 11 | Chief quietly plugging stock (6) |
| STAPLE – STA(P)LE. Both chief and stock as adjectives, and not nouns as they are in the surface reading of the clue. | |
| 13 | Take one’s place fast and wait (3,5) |
| SIT TIGHT – SIT + TIGHT. | |
| 14 | Reporter ignoring Republican, alleged adulterer (2-10) |
| CO-RESPONDENT – CO[r]RESPONDENT, with a literal that takes us back to the UK divorce laws of the 1920s. There were a lot of jokes about professional co-respondents. | |
| 17 | Prey to anxiety over crew sunk in storm (7,5) |
| NERVOUS WRECK – Anagram of OVER CREW SUNK, a very well-hidden anagram. | |
| 20 | Old coppers in conversation (8) |
| EXCHANGE – EX + CHANGE. | |
| 21 | Spread out in field? (6) |
| PICNIC – A cryptic definition, and a good one. | |
| 22 | Rest spots lacking parking at back (6) |
| SIESTA – S[p]IES + AT backwards. A brilliant clue, full of misdirection – raise your hand if you thought the last letter of parking was involved. | |
| 23 | Careless constable ignoring new complication (8) |
| OBSTACLE – Anagram of CO[n]STABLE. | |
| 25 | Repudiate last of clergy on retreat (4) |
| DENY – DEN + [clerg]Y. Retreat is often a reversal indicator, but not here. | |
| 26 | Ed sneers at silly show (10) |
| EASTENDERS – Anagram of ED SNEERS AT. Those looking for a verb meaning show will discover the answer is an actual show. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Doing nothing but working? (8) |
| INACTION – IN ACTION, where the parallel forms doing and working make you expect a verb rather than a noun. | |
| 3 | Plant that climbs most of mountain (3) |
| PEA – PEA[k]. Just about the only easy clue in the puzzle. | |
| 4 | Libertine drinking gallons, contravening norms (5) |
| ROGUE – RO(G)UE. Well, maybe two easy clues. | |
| 5 | Montmartre as one embracing rebellion (7) |
| TREASON – Hidden in [Montmar]TRE AS ON[e]. | |
| 6 | Clearly an order Thomas failed to obey? (9) |
| DOUBTLESS – An allusion to Doubting Thomas. | |
| 7 | Old duke resigning from directorship abroad (11) |
| PREHISTORIC – Anagram of [d]IRECTORSHIP, a brilliant clue with a very natural surface and an unexpected anagram indicator. | |
| 8 | Foam from English river rising, engulfing hospital (6) |
| SEETHE – E (H) TEES, all upside-down. Once again, a seeming noun leading to a verb. | |
| 12 | Unrealistic expectation of lunch on easyJet? (3,2,3,3) |
| PIE IN THE SKY – A jocular cryptic hint. | |
| 15 | Descent from great ape not initially preposterous (9) |
| PARENTAGE – Anagram of GREAT APE N[ot]. | |
| 16 | Writer’s second story making one’s blood run cold (8) |
| SCHILLER – S + CHILLER, a chestnut I sadly did not recognize. | |
| 18 | Demanding I run round the States? (7) |
| ONEROUS – ONE + R + O + US. | |
| 19 | Conk out in river, cut up inside (6) |
| EXPIRE – EX(RIP upside-down)E. Rather strong for conk out, but probably meant in a jocular sense. | |
| 21 | Group of friends have to drop couple in the end (5) |
| POSSE – POSSE[ss]. In the US, there would be an implication of not a respectable group of friends, a gang. | |
| 24 | Assistance for Cockney joiner (3) |
| AND – [h]AND. The trap that those who parse will dodge. | |
Yes, ’twas not easy. I had no luck initially in the top so started from the bottom, which didn’t help so I just wandered around until I had enough to start getting more. I bunged in STAPLE but didn’t associate ‘stale’ with ‘stock’. PIE IN THE SKY was a write in, which helped along with CO-RESPONDENT and NERVOUS WRECK. Liked PICNIC. Couldn’t see EASTENDERS falling for the trap of looking for a verb. Fell for the AID trap at 24d. COD to INACTION.
Thanks V and setter.
STAPLE was my last in, with no confidence. I really thought that was quite an awful clue.
39 minutes. The LH side seemed pretty straightforward apart from being unable to parse SIESTA, but the RH slowed me considerably. I felt my problems there were mostly of my own making rather than the puzzle was particularly hard, but I can certainly agree that 24dn is bordering on the devious. Like many others, I suspect, I bunged in AID but fortunately I thought to revisit the clue at the last minute and realised that in order to fit the parsing the answer had to be AND.
Elsewhere RH I had bunged in TEST for ‘trial’ at 7ac although that would involve ‘trial’ doing double-duty and leave ‘prolonging’ unaccounted for. That prevented me spotting PREHISTORIC at 7dn until reason prevailed.
DOUBTLESS with its biblical record evaded me for too long, as did ‘fast / TIGHT’ at 13ac, and the anagram leading to EASTENDERS where I had to write out the anagrist more than once.
Despite my problems this was an enjoyable solve and I was grateful for the compactness of many of the clues by comparison with some puzzles over recent weeks.
I didn’t like the clue for STAPLE either, but I was finding this pretty Mondayish at first, and when I slowed down, figured I was just getting sleepy. After a few bites of homemade Xmas fudge from West Virginia and a(nother) snort of bourbon, I got my second wind. The CD for PICNIC was my LOI.
For a minute now, US peeps been referring to their regular homies as their POSSE, a term with a totally positive vibe. Of course, its most common historical referent is a group of citizens deputized by a sheriff to help enforce the law. I am unfamiliar with the term’s application to a Jamaican street gang, a usage Collins tags as US but of which Merriam-Webster is ignorant.
I forgot to say we had POSSE as a circle of friends quite recently, the first time I have met it in that context, so I was ready for it today. Also PEA as a climber.
Mostly on song, but there were a few difficult-to-see clues. And a few self-induced slowdowns: William Haig was the first tory leader I thought of, needed more crossers to spell him properly; and last letter of clergy was obviously C so wasted a minute trying to work out that answer. Fortunately pie in the sky was obvious and made deny easy. Siesta was a write in for me, just saw it. L2I were fairly simple UNEVEN, and Schiller. Definitions like writer, plant, bird, composer etc. make my brain freeze up.
Did like and admire it a lot.
In contrast to others, I thought STAPLE was a superb clue, and I delighted in the trap at 24d. My COD goes to NERVOUS WRECK though, not often I find an anagram satisfying. One quibble: I don’t see how ranting can be the malicious synonym for HARANGUE? Shouldn’t it be HARANGING?
Oxford Dictionary: ranting (noun) – lengthy, angry, and impassioned speech
Ah, so it’s a noun form of both “a harangue” and “a ranting”? Fair enough then even if unfamiliar to me. Thanks @jackkt.
I followed just about every misleading lead I could: whisky=W Trial at first=T, in conversation=homophone, spread out=(spread), … I do remember Hague, mainly because someone described him as looking like an embryo; he does op-eds in the Times these days. I knew AID had to be wrong, only saw what was right as I hit the submit button. I liked PREHISTORIC & NERVOUS WRECK.
46 minutes. Slow, taking a long time to get AND for which I needed both crossing letters. I’ll try to remember the ‘friends’ sense of POSSE which was new to me. I liked PIE IN THE SKY and PREHISTORIC.
This took some getting into, and finishing, but in between was highly enjoyable, COD to DOUBTLESS. It would have been NERVOUS WRECK, but I only spotted it was an anagram well after the event. MER at STALE, with STAPLE LOI.
24:40 with the NW accounting for the majority of that time. Managed to erase Hague from my memory when going back over Tory leaders (that maybe a good thing), got fixated with putting a W into DISPIRITED (I really should have clocked the question mark earlier) and stale for stock gets a raised eyebrow from me.
Late save on this one revisiting AID just before submission and correcting it to AND
Enjoyed EASTENDERS only because I was trying to assemble something more high brow before it revealed itself.
Thanks blogger and setter
Just over 15 minutes.
– Initially put TEST for 7a even though it left ‘prolonging’ unaccounted for, and only realised my mistake when I figured out PREHISTORIC
– Same quibble as others over STAPLE
– ‘Adulterer’ wasn’t an obvious equivalence for CO-RESPONDENT to me, though it had to be right
– Thought 21a might be an anagram until the checkers pointed me towards PICNIC
– ‘Show’ wasn’t a particularly helpful definition for EASTENDERS
Thanks vinyl and setter.
FOI And
LOI Siesta
COD Prehistoric
Quick today, as befits a Monday. Quite a lot of write-ins – pie in the sky, Eastenders etc etc. And as Jackkt says, we had posse = friends quite recently.
Count me in the group that dislikes 11ac STAPLE. The definitions just didn’t seem quite right to me.
I’m not sure why so many have taken against ‘chief / STAPLE’ and I must admit to having looked twice at it myself whilst solving. But all the usual sources have the equivalence, using such words as ‘main’, ‘important’ and ‘leading’ and some of them actually mention ‘chief’. Here’s an ODE entry:
staple (adjective)
[attributive]
1
main or important, especially in terms of consumption:
the staple foods of the poor
violence is the staple diet of the video generation figurative
Synonyms
main, principal, chief, major, primary, leading, foremost, first, most important, predominant, dominant, (most) prominent, key, crucial, vital, indispensable, essential, basic, fundamental, standard, critical, pivotal, prime, central, premier.
I’m another having no problems with STAPLE. Also not sure which part people are MERing at: STAPLE as chief, which it obviously is as Jack points out; or STOCK as stale, as in a stock answer to a question you’re continually asked but don’t want to answer.
I didn’t mer, or complain it was unfair or wrong, I just didn’t like it .. 🙂
Apologies, others did MER at it.
Oh, no apology needed. Not sure a mer and a dislike are much different!
Forced to justify my dislike, I would say that there were two different synonyms that I didn’t think were close because I personally wouldn’t use them. One, I can cope with 🙂
I enjoyed this apart from being delayed for several minutes by having TEST at 7AC which made the anagram at 7D impossible.
20:52. A Monday time for me but it felt tougher mid-solve. Lots of errors on leaderboard, probably AID for AND.
Most fun was LOI EASTENDERS, QC level clueing but such unpromising fodder and great PDM.
Quality stuff, thanks to Vinyl and setter.
No problems here, a steady and fairly easy solve, didn’t even fall down the AND trap. DNF ultimately because I gave up too easily on SIESTA. Not sure about trial/PEST as synonyms but I thought it was a decent puzzle. Thanks for the blog.
18’45”, staggered still to find that STAPLE was correct. Unaccountably, PEA was LOI. Really liked the Thomas clue. Avoided the Cockney trap.
Thanks vinyl and setter.
19.55. Initially I thought I was just being slow, and failed to start completely in the NW sector, where IVY as a climbing plant (Mt Ivyx?) and W[hiskey] refused to go away. But the excellence of the clues persuaded me this was just a good, teasing puzzle. I especially liked the 2 “remove one letter” anagrams, constable and directorship: anagrams shouldn’t look like anagrams. PARENTAGE another fine example, once you realised it was “add one letter”.
I spent time working on the wp for SIESTA, indeed looking for the missing [parkin]G. Years correcting aspiring job applicants writing “I posses good literacy skills” helped, though my POSSE will always be the Boys From the Dwarf.
I’m old enough to remember William HAGUE’s appearance as a 16 year old wunderkind at the Tory conference, possibly the inspiration for Harry Enfield’s Tory Boy but much wittier.
Thanks to vinyl for showing appreciation where it’s due.
No ‘possibly’ about it! Harry Enfield has said as much.
I didn’t know that!
Watching Hague at the tory conference was exactly like one of those awful horror films where you think its just a child but suddenly, it’s eyes light up and it COMES for you … never forgotten it.
Or watched another horror film, or tory conference ..
I sailed through the top half of this then got totally bogged down in the bottom half. Sticking points were EXCHANGE, EXPIRE and SIESTA(couldn’t parse it) in the SW, and EASTENDERS, SCHILLER, PICNIC and POSSE in the SE. I had CASTE at 21d for a while, but then PICNIC suddenly hove into view and a POSSE was born. DISPIRITED was FOI. 32:32 with 10 of those on 4 in the SE. Thanks setter and Vinyl.
55 mins and pretty tough in places as has been mentioned. I’m also out of practice as I’ve been busy/travelling over the last few days. Held in both the NE and SW, I eventually worked it all out with L2I EXCHANGE & EXPIRE.
I particularly liked NERVOUS WRECK, as I feellike one….
Thanks V and setter.
This long reply from Jason Crampton, the crossword editor for the Times, has been moved to a separate thread. Please post your replies there.
For my part, I love it when the Snitch is 200+ as the challenge is so much more, well, challenging. Friday’s was a great crossword and I too would be sorry not to have real ‘stinkers’ every couple of weeks.
Thank you for your thoughtful response. I think the placing of Friday’s crossword perhaps added to the disaffection of some solvers who had struggled with Thursday’s offering and still felt disgruntled about difficult clues with dubious surface readings such as 12 across (Arranging area for party, butcher’s in Hamburg’s terminal embraces joyful circulating). Had it appeared after a couple of more straightforward puzzles, I think it would have received a warmer reception. Prolonged sequences of daunting puzzles can lead to fatigue and a feeling of disengagement among solvers. I’m sure your proposed improvements will be appreciated and well received. Thanks again.
Very good analysis.
I found this quite tough for a Monday, getting there in about 45 minutes but watching tennis at the same time. I dithered between PEST and POST for 7a as a PEST didn’t seem like a trial, and thought the time in DC was EDT not EST. But plumped correctly in the end as POST was unparseable. As said by others, some very good clues in here.
It is, sometimes! I think EDT is to EST more or less as BST is to GMT.
You are right, Pip! In summertime — baseball season, we cannot wait — it is EDT.
Daylight (savings) as opposed to S(tandard).
We?
Well, I for one will be disappointed to find the frequency of ‘stinkers’ reduced. Yes, they are challenging – but ultimately much more satisfying than the staple 70-80 snitchers.
My thanks to vinyl1 and setter.
Not easy, not Mondayish, DNF.
7a I as others tried TEST, and didn’t see that it doesn’t parse. Prehistoric anagram sorted that out.
14a Co-respondent, good for a chuckle.
22a Siesta biffed, and I raise my hand, could not place a G in there.
3d Pea, not a gimme for me, took a while.
6d FOI Doubtless. I needed a sitter.
This seemed hard for a Monday, though thankfully not in stinker territory. I was confused by the half-possibility of ‘rouge’ for far too long before seeing ROGUE. It seemed possible that the French might say ‘film rouge’ for ‘blue movie’ but apparently not (though similar colour changes from blue to red or green would apparently work in Italian and Spanish phrases with that meaning).
I was 80 recently and my solving speeds are declining, although it seems to me that in some ways I’m getting better. Slow now at thinking of connections. So this one will be the last where I’m intending to post my time (well over an hour in this case). If I’m unusually quick (most unlikely) or get totally bogged down then perhaps, but generally no.
I can’t see what’s the problem with STAPLE. It seems to me to be rather a good clue. And there were plenty of them in this crossword. Jason is right when he says that enjoyment and difficulty are not incompatible.
Biffed AID and wasn’t happy with it and forgot to go back to it. Bah, shouldn’t write in if not happy. Saw the right answer as soon as the pink square hove into view…
WOE after 16:38.
Hague is not really a forgotten man, as he writes frequent comment pieces in The Times and is the newish Chancellor of the University of Oxford.
One error in nearly 23 mins. I invented PICKIN when I wanted PICNIC.
COD: PICNIC.
Thanks to vinyl and our setter.
25:47 but…
…forgot to revisit AID – doh!
Was also stuck in the NE at the end – got UNEVEN, but ages to think of SEETHE and finally PEST.
I, too, wasn’t a big fan of chief/STAPLE.
Thanks Vinyl and setter
11:02. Nice puzzle.
I’m listening to The Forsyte Saga on audiobook at the moment and a divorce is central to the plot so 14ac was top of mind.
I saw William Hague give an after-dinner speech to a rather serious finance crowd many years ago and he was brilliant: thoughtful, articulate and amusing for 45 minutes without notes. I’m surprised they’ll still have him in the party 😉
I found this a classic friendly Monday Times crossword. It took me a leisurely 22 mins. I was slightly fazed, but not delayed, by the clue to STAPLE with staple = chief, and stock = stale. After I’d solved the puzzle I spent a minute or two working out the wordplay to SIESTA. There were plenty of nice clues. My favourite two were to HARANGUE and SCHILLER. Thank you to Setter and vinyl1.
28 mins. Agree that this was high quality for a Monday and the last three to drop had me guessing quite a bit: PEST, STAPLE, EXPIRE. The only one I should have got quicker was EASTENDERS which went in with a groan. Ya got me.
An enjoyable 50.44 spent solving this tricky puzzle, but before stopping the clock I returned to 24dn as my biffed AID just didn’t seem right. Of course it wasn’t, and eventually AND made sense. Unfortunately I forgot to return to 7ac, where my unparsed POST remained, and PEST therefore eluded me. I guess once I saw Washington in the clueing and the given letters were P-S-, the newspaper came immediately to mind.
Am I the only one who found PIE IN THE SKY hilarious ?
Found this hard for a Monday – 47 minutes – but not nearly as bad as Friday’s, which I didn’t finish until Saturday! Was happy with all the clues, although was slow to parse SIESTA. (Didn’t fall into whisky/W trap, as W is always whiskey with an E.)
I normally do well on a Monday but this completely foxed me. Loved the PICNIC clue even though its answer passed me by. It’s so easy when you know!
I didn’t (and don’t) see why PEST is “trial”, and didn’t care much for STAPLE. Otherwise that was a delight, packed full of accessible cleverness. All done in 19:15. Many thanks vinyl.
Collins has: trial – an annoying or frustrating person or thing
PICNIC was good. Biffed PEST, tx for parse. Dont see why AND was a trap. Took about 20 mins, good puzzle.
Co-respondents are also shoes. Hmm. I wonder if we’ll see that picked up in a future clue. Not a simple Monday (which I badly need to get my average down — yes I know it’s pathetic but I can’t help it!). Finished in 28’45”. Never saw the NERVOUS WRECK anagram but just assumed there was some wordplay with STORM. Many thanks.
I’m with the found it on the harder side crew. And I’m definitely in the Staple was a reach posse.
Enjoyed this although DNF due to smugly adding AID without parsing so unable to get the final clue…
Like DISPIRITED, DOUBTLESS and PREHISTORIC and thought STAPLE was OK.
Thanks to all.
Loved 24 down. Reminded me of a clue sometime ago about a cockney not recognising a newcomer resulting in a firearm. Also 3 letters. Can’t remember the exact wording but very clever.
24 minutes but in two sessions over two days. I wasn’t going to bother posting but seeing some of the comments and times posted, I’m now glad I did. Submitted convinced that STAPLE (LOI) was wrong but unable to find an alternative.
Delighted to encounter CO-RESPONDENT as it immediately conjures up those two-tone shoes and therefore COD for me.
Thanks as ever.
I came here to see how Stale = Stock, got it now!!!, and just replied in the other thread about Friday’s puzzle, so for the record I finished this one in 46 minutes which looking at everyone else seems to be par for the course for a middle-of-the-roader like me 🙂 it’s a little disappointing that when I started these puzzles a few years back I got better quite fast, but I seem now to have reached my level!!! Thanks to everyone involved in setting and blogging these puzzles.