| 1 |
One signalling game is up? (7-6) |
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WHISTLE-BLOWER – a cryptic definition with two meanings, depending on the sense of ‘game’ (sporting event or undertaking ); here is Parsing King K’s take: this is a clue ‘where the more literal reading is a cryptic definition and the more cryptic reading is a straight one.’ I think I understand… |
| 2 |
Release loaves bishop ordered (7) |
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ABSOLVE – LOAVES B* |
| 3 |
Kind of setter for one to turn up (5) |
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GENUS – reversal of SUN EG (for one) |
| 4 |
Questioned dictator caught in river delta (8) |
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EXAMINED – AMIN in EXE D |
| 5 |
Be careful, young man? (6) |
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STEADY – double definition: ‘Steady. old chap!’ and ‘Kevin’s my steady’ |
| 6 |
Duke’s wife expelled from capital (9) |
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ELLINGTON – wELLINGTON |
| 7 |
Soldiers look round for protection from sun (7) |
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PARASOL – PARAS the LO reversed |
| 10 |
Game of those coming too close to you? (5,8) |
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SPACE INVADERS – another cryptic definition with, shall we say, two elements; shoot ’em up video game released in 1978 and those who get too near you for comfort in social situations |
| 14 |
Facelift going wrong, daughter distressed (9) |
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AFFLICTED – FACELIFT* D |
| 16 |
A help getting into Oxford? (8) |
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SHOEHORN – another cryptic definition, which we had only last week, I believe |
| 18 |
Suspicion surrounding Cockney woman’s patio (7) |
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TERRACE – ‘ER (her being woman’s, ‘er being Cockney woman’s) in TRACE |
| 20 |
Great performances from fantastic English choirs (7) |
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HEROICS – E CHOIRS* |
| 21 |
Enemy not far away, according to Spooner? Certainly not (2,4) |
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NO FEAR – ‘foe near’ after Spoonerisation |
| 23 |
Make out one is enthralled by tight-lipped individual (5) |
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CLAIM – I (one) in CLAM; claim as in ‘She made out that she was an expert’ |
6:55. Pretty fast for me – in my top-20 times. It all went in quite smoothly. DNK TELOS so relied on the wordplay for that. I liked WHISTLE-BLOWER best. Thanks U and setter.
I also had problems getting started in the NW, so scouted around for the shortest answers elsewhere, which can be a handy tactic. I immediately saw CURIA and worked from there, finishing with the unknown TELOS. Liked NEMESIS, but then I’m a sucker for spy stuff. 29m
Loved this. Hard to get started so went to the south and worked my way up. As you say, some unknown words, for me anyway, but clear wordplay helped. ABSOLVE took a while to figure out along with INDONESIA. Liked ELLINGTON. STEPPE took some. time before the light dawned. Got the Spoonerism straight off for a change. COD to GENUS.
Thanks U and setter.
Anyone else having trouble accessing the puzzles on the app?
Yes, but it’s working now.
Anyone else unable to do any puzzles on the app this morning?
I always enjoy single word anagrams of eight or nine letters or more, shorter ones being very common of course. Annuities/insinuate was new to me. The longest I’ve seen is tergiversation/interrogatives. This has probably been discussed before!
Idiomaticalness = medicalisations = decimalisations is a 15-letter example.
I have many others, 15 letters and more.
I am usually to be found only in the QC arena. And here I am, at the big grid.
I am sitting very quietly in the far corner, tentatively entering an occasional letter and from time to time, word into the grid, checking each as I go. After 30 minutes I reveal 3 letters in spaces of my choosing, then plod on, slowly revealing more letters if progress grinds to a total halt.
Not the most traditional of approaches, yet I have learnt that our brains address cryptics in many ways. This method seems to suit me.
When the moment takes me, I reveal all before proceeding to this blog.
Thank you so much, you are all my tutors and your words serve to increase mine.
It is also very much my experience that gradually I tune in to a cryptic crossword. This one is a very tidy example I think. DNK TELOS but it was clued fairly. “Kind of setter” made me smile the most. Thanks for the blog.
About 15 minutes.
– Had to trust that a LORIS is a nocturnal creature
– Couldn’t have told you what TELOS means
– Wasn’t 100% certain about STEADY, but I think ‘go-steady’ has come up in these puzzles before
– Took a while to realise that ‘fantastic’ was an anagrind to get HEROICS
Thanks ulaca and setter.
FOI Insinuate
LOI Steady
COD Curia
36 minutes with delays getting a grip in the SW corner. DNK CURIA or TELOS, the latter having previously appeared only in a Club Monthly, a Mephisto and a TLS puzzle. Very enjoyable as the unknowns were clued fairly.
16:23. Quick yes but with a few tricksy bits.
TELOS, CURIA and Vocative rang only faint bells not having had that type of education. I read and enjoyed Secret History when it came out.
Wondered if there was a Duke (w)ASHINGTON at first.
I like CDs and was well served here. COD SPACE INVADERS.
Thanks Ulaca and setter.
12:16 – one of my best times.
The only NHO (or perhaps VHO) is ‘steady’ for young man, but it was the only reasonable option. On STEPPE, I spent too much time looking for it to begin with ‘me’ ‘my’ or ‘I’. Once I saw that it was simply a homophone, it fell quickly.
I know ELLINGTON from crosswords.
Lots of fun, COD to WHISTLE-BLOWER.
What? Only from crosswords?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2G1fKYFgVU&list=RDr2G1fKYFgVU
Yep, I’m afraid so. I think you might have posted this link the last time I said this, at which point it was just a straight-up NHO. At least I have now HO him, and heard his music.
Or Stevie Wonder, Sir Duke
brilliant..
15.00 Which might indicate correctly that I was slow getting going in the top left corner. TELOS was my first in, thinking “I know that, but will anyone else?” After that I meandered more or less clockwise round the grid, though I finished with STEPPE after rejecting SIERRA as it only sounded like a car. I struggled to get WHISTLE BLOWER – was it too obvious?
I must improve my rusty, koine Greek: I got Χαίρετε, and deduced πάντες was probably everyone, but threw the rest across to Google (highlight, search Google for…) and got the answer – in Greek. Why can’t AI read minds yet?
Google Translate does Greek!
https://translate.google.com/
How did you all do?
Indeed. If I highlight and right click, that’s an option.
In view of the snitch rating, I was disappointed that it took me 30 minutes. Delayed by STEPPE as I do not readily equate the singular step with a course of action being a series of steps. Nor did EV immediately come to mind from Tesla. Biffed ELLINGTON trusting it to be the capital of somewhere despite the removal of the W. Just one of my dimmer days, I suppose.
COD INSINUATE. LOI STEPPE.
Thanks to setter and ulaca.
18 mins which is one if my quicker times. Knew LORIS from somewhere but couldn’t tell you what it was and TELOS was NHO (but came up in my word checker as I typed this..).
Parsed GENUS wrongly, thinking it was a little joke from the setter, being a “genius” if one turned up.
Remembered vocative from school and those huge SPACE INVADERS consoles in late 70s/early 80s pubs seems a different world now.
Thanks Ulaca and setter
A nice accessible Monday puzzle done in c 12 and half minutes with nothing causing too much of a hold up. SPACE INVADERS, my LOI with all the crossers in place and a nice PDM. I’m another for whom TELOS was DNK – I have encountered a consulting firm called Telos and it struck me that the Greek for aim or purpose would be the kind of thing the brand advisers would have recommended when they were choosing their moniker. Not exactly turning to Chambers but it did the job.
Thanks to setter and blogger
Flying along with a rare sub 15 minute finish in my sights, but took ages over the tricky alliterative triad of SPACE INVADERS, STEADY and STEPPE and had to settle for 22.37. But a really enjoyable start to the week.
Thanks U and setter.
ABSOLVE was FOI. Then I roamed around the grid picking off low hanging fruit. TELOS only came after all the crossers were in and then following the wordplay. CHIN CHIN was LOI after HEROICS, which took a lot longer than it should have. 16:30. Thanks setter and U.
11.47. I was curious whether CURIA would be right, at a loss at TELOS (but what else could be), and really liked STEADY. COD for me. Thanks blogger and setter!
7’27”, so fourth in the lifetime PB list. Like almost everyone else, slow to start in the NW so reverted to my L to R tactic, where WHISTLE-BLOWER flew in. Used to love SPACE INVADERS, I remember monopolising the machine in the pub. I have read The Secret History, found it disquieting. LORIS and SHOEHORN have recently figured elsewhere.
Ευχαριστώ ulaca and setter.
All went in smoothly and there were no holdups, except perhaps on the SPACE INVADERS clue, where I was thinking of that children’s game where you creep up on someone and keep still when they look round, couldn’t and can’t remember its name but I suspected it started with ‘stage’. TELOS unheard-of but taken on trust: it could hardly have been anything else with that wordplay and T_L_S.
Would the game be “grandmother’s footsteps”?
Oh yes that’s it. Many thanks. Haven’t come across the game since the 1950s.
A nice puzzle to start the week all correctly solved bar “space invaders” where I thought I was looking for an old playground game that I wouldn’t know.
“Telos” was today’s unknown but the clue was straightforward with the checkers.
The “steppe”/”steady” crossers also took me a bit of time at the end to unravel.
Thanks to our blogger and setter.
6:15. Plain sailing, nice puzzle to start the week. Fingers crossed for TELOS but the wordplay could hardly have been clearer.
1dn is one of those (quite common) clues where the more literal reading is a cryptic definition and the more cryptic reading is a straight one.
Could have been TOLOS. But I would have thought that the word TELEOLOGICAL was familiar to many crossworders, giving you the TEL. Perhaps not. I know it as a former philosophy student.
My thought process wasn’t quite this conscious but TELOS seemed more likely to be a (probably Greek) word.
Very familiar with TELOS, root of “teleological.” Always comes up in debating Marx’s view of history!
It took me a while to get going on this, but once I had started it felt more like a QC, all done in 16 minutes, probably a PB. No issues. NHO TELOS in English, but recognised the word in Greek. A pleasant gentle start to the week.
FOI – INSINUATE
LOI – ELEVATED
COD – GENUS
Thanks to ulaca and other contributors.
My thanks to ulaca and setter. Harder than I expected on a Monday.
DNF, NHO 11a Telos. Should have guessed it.
27a Nemesis biffed, saw the SIS but didn’t understand the clue at all.
11:33. I made a slow start but soon got motoring. A few typos slowed me down.
COD: SHOEHORN
Thanks to ulaca and our setter.
14:15 – it was either telos or tolos and fortunately it was telos. No problems otherwise.
A fairly speedy 31.34 with my fingers crossed for TELOS. SPACE INVADERS and finally ELEVATED my last two in.
Quite a Monday crossword, as only 3 out of 142 solvers on the SNITCH are over their usual time. I was slowed down a little by putting obsolve instead of absolve, not sure why….that could lead to wrongle, which is obviously a wrong ‘un! I looked at telos and thought that was straight Greek, is it really a word in English? The Spoonerism was the easiest ever, but for some reason I couldn’t see Space Invaders until I had all the checkers.
Time: 18:55
Good start to the week. In crossword land, can Oxford only ever mean shoes or trousers – they seem to come up all the time?
I edited the last part of your comment, as the Sunday Times puzzle is a prize one, and it’s still live.
I had TOLOS to begin with, but thought that SOLO didn’t quite mean “only”, so re-thought.
I seem to be getting slower, SNITCH tells me I was well over “par”.
13:38
14:37
Strong progress throughout though there were a few words I either didn’t know (TELOS) or knew of the word, but could not have defined it (CURIA, LORIS). Everything else very gettable and fairly clued.
Thanks U and setter
Young people must despair. Going steady then toasting each other with chin chin. Ask Granny.
This crossed my mind with STEADY, which is practically archaic. Chin-chin still common, I think?
Mine too. Also SPACE INVADERS, ATTLEE and the classical references. Not sure I’ve heard chin chin this century. One of our older setters methinks!
Agreed, Lessa! And isn’t WORRISOME more American English than British English?
17:37 with only two really holding me up:
STEPPE convinced myself it had to end in a Y and was not 100% sure on STEADY.
And EVOCATIVE where again got fixated on the wrong idea that it had to start EXO for a case.
Enjoyed SPACE INVADERS
Thanks blogger and setter
26 minutes. Like a few others here, I had problems with CURIA and especially TELOS, though found that I have come across both before. I liked the SPACE INVADERS reminder of days now well in the past.
Shot through this one in 11 mins, my fastest in a very long time. WRANGLE went in at once, very closely followed by WHISTLE-BLOWER. No unheard-ofs, no problems with wordplay. Very nice clues; my only (minor) beefs were the surprising appearance of TELOS, which in my view should be confined to barred crosswords (why not TALKS, TALUS or TILES, say?) and I feel that ATTLEE has received far too much cruciverbal air time of late. Last one in was SPACE INVADERS – I don’t know why, as I’ve played it many times in the past. Favourite four clues: to CHIN-CHIN, STEADY, ELLINGTON and SHOEHORN. Thank you Setter and Blogger.
The bit in The Secret History where the main characters speak to each other in Ancient Greek so that other students won’t understand them was hysterically funny for some reason.
Steady was good, though it took me a long time to see it. And SPACE INVADERS.
There’s a bit in “Captain Corelli’s mandolin” where an SOE agent tries to use his Ancient Greek with the partisans that’s rather amusing.
The professor who taught me the language of Homer and Plato in college also spoke good modern Greek, as well as half-a-dozen other European languages.
Going well but left it at 30 mins with one missing. STEPPE, thought it might be a geographical feature but could not get it. Went with SHERPA just about the only thing that fitted.
NHO TELOS or Loris
COD ELLINGTON
Very enjoyable puzzle.
Had to print off a paper copy this morning, as the app wasn’t working. It’s nice to be able to doodle the anagrams in the margins for a change.
Liked NEMESIS. Didn’t know TELOS or CURIA, but fairly clued.
Thanks blogger and setter.
About 9 minutes, so on the easier side. Liked WHISTLE BLOWER.
25:13 A very nice puzzle with no real problems, STEADY,LOI and COD.
Thanks to Ulaca and the setter.
A typical Monday puzzle I thought, and none the worse for that.
It doesn’t reflect well on me but I got very good at playing SPACE INVADERS in my twenties. It was I think one of the first electronic games in many pubs back then.
FOI INSINUATE
LOI TELOS (NHO)
COD GENUS
Defender was my game! Managed once to turn the clock, but cost me many 50p coins
31 minutes, which is fast for me on a 15×15, but DNF – couldn’t get WELLINGTON or Attlee and NHO of TELOS but biffed it anyway. Quite enjoyable though. COD for me EVOCATIVE. Thanks to ulaca and setter.
Latecomer.
Quickest in ages for me: can still do sub ten when they are easier. Thanks for explaining my biffed Telos and steady; obvious now. So long ago since we were married i think it was called “walking out” then
Bucking the trend with a laborious 1hr 20 mins off and on throughout the day.
Took ages to see Attlee, Loris, Curia, Genus and Nemesis.
None of this helped that I was fixated on Wellington being the Duke but couldn’t convince myself that there was a capital city called Ellington. What a clot I am sometimes.
This one was pretty enjoyable but, in my opinion, not as easy as some recent Monday puzzles.
I had NHO CURIA or TELOS, but worked them out. I think it helps that I’m (finally, after many years) starting to understand what the question mark means, and hence twigging cryptic clues a lot more readily.
Also, I’m not sure if I’m finding the Spoonerisms easier to spot because of experience in the relatively new clue device, or whether the Times has made a conscious effort to make them easier to get? Does anybody have an opinion on that? I thought today’s was very obvious, but perhaps that was because it was a two-worder in which the word break wasn’t affected by the Spoonerism?
I had LET OUT instead of LET OFF for 17 ac, which held me up for ages and ages on 14dn, till I finally looked again at 17ac and thought, what if it’s OFF, then saw immediately the F in facelift and suddenly it all made sense…
So after all that, I finished in 26 minutes in the end.
Not a usual easy Monday puzzle for me! I laughed out loud when i finally got ‘space invaders’ having spent a long while trying to think of any game I played that could have ended in Knockers or Knickers! And those people who do invade stay vivid in your alarmed memory! Usually with bad teeth! Then, when you know, you cannot believe you didn’t know before! Highly entertaining, thanks all! Cx
Space Invaders. St. John’s College bar 1979. I still thrill at the thought of those livid colours, changing every time you went up a level. 19’53” was my time. Should have been faster. Good fun.
Similar experience to some others with a difficulty getting started in the northwest or just the acrosses in general. Then the bottom half went straight in and I worked my way back up to my LOI TELOS. Just over 18 minutes, so slightly slower than last Monday but anything under 20 minutes is quick for me.
I found this pleasingly ( for me) approachable, and completed without major bafflement. Missed the subtleties of a few parses in the upper half. In particular I need to keep in my head the many different ways of indicating “ when heard”. Release/ absolve is one of those synonyms I’m not entirely convinced by, whatever the learned tomes say, and I’ll stick with my preferred understanding . Enjoyed WHISTLE BLOWER, though I’m sure it must be a chestnut to many.
Encouraging start to the week – onwards and upwards !
Many thanks to setter and blogger