This was a toughie and I think I can say that with confidence as at 3:00 AM there are only 6 correct entries on the leader board and only one of them is timed at under 25 minutes by more than a few seconds. After 30 minutes I was seriously wondering if I would ever get through this but I completed it in 1hr 20. There are no particularly difficult answers but the clues are mostly wordy so there’s plenty of room to hide stuff, and there are no 3- or 4-letter solutions – the ones I usually rely on to get me started, nor even a hidden answer. As on the last occasion I blogged a 15×15 we are one letter short of a pangram and this time we are looking for somewhere to place a W.
Across |
|
---|---|
1 | EROICA – I inside CORE (essence) reversed, A. Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony. |
4 |
JAMBOREE – JAM (predicament), BORE (weathered), E |
10 | HEAD FIRST – HEAD (command), FIRST (premier) |
11 |
CONIC – CON (study), |
12 | MAIN TOP – MAIN (head), TOP (first) – see 10ac. It’s a platform at the head of a main mast, apparently. I’d have called it a crow’s nest but I’m not sure if they are always one and the same. |
13 |
DESPITE – D |
14 | ROGER – This is with reference to its use as an acknowledgement in radio communications meaning received and understood, so ‘yes’ by extension |
15 |
APPETITE – A, P |
18 | ORGANDIE – ORGAN (instrument), DIE (cut out – as an engine may). On edit: Ulaca’s comment below reminded me that I had planned to mention this was one of very few write-ins for me, the word having come up in Grumpy’s Quick puzzle only yesterday. I was mighty grateful for it on such a difficult blogging day. |
20 |
EMCEE – |
23 | SQUIDGE – S (son), QUID (money) EG (say) reversed. A word that’s used quite a lot these days to describe what TV companies insist on doing to end of programme credits. Then they double the annoyance factor by talking over them too. |
25 | SUSTAIN – US inside STAIN (spot) |
26 |
ICILY – |
27 | ANNAPOLIS – Anagram of LOAN SPAIN. The state capital of Maryland. |
28 |
EVENNESS – EVEN |
29 | HYPHEN – H (husband) inside HYPE (hoax), N (noon). What’s this – indeed! |
Down |
|
1 | EPHEMERA – E (English), EH (what) inside MP, all reversed inside ERA (time) |
2 | ORATING – O (old), RATING (man on board – ship) |
3 | CAFETERIA – CA (about), FETE (fund raiser), AIR (feeling) reversed |
5 |
ANTIDEPRESSANT – Anagram of |
6 | BUCKS – BUCK, (blood – spirited young man), S (shillings) |
7 | RUN RIOT – RUN (pass), RIO (port), T (time) |
8 | EXCEED – EX (without), CEED sounds like ‘seed’ (sons and daughters) |
9 | DROP HANDLEBARS – DROP (spot, as in rain for example), HANDEL (composer, with his last two letters reversed), BARS (some music – I think they’re called ‘measures’ across the pond) |
16 |
THEOSOPHY – Anagram of PHOOEY and TH |
17 |
TENNYSON – TENN |
19 | ROUTINE – TIN (money) inside ROUE (ladies’ man) |
21 | CHALLAH – CHA (tea), HALL (manor house) reversed. Served at Sabbath apparently. |
22 | ASSIZE – AS (when), SIZE sounds like ‘sighs’ (relieved sounds) |
24 | DOYEN – DO (party), YEN (long) |
The heart sinks when you see clues like “Platform 10” and “A yes men?” — absolutely no go without some help from the surrounds.
Several garden paths led up here. Such as: looking for a deletion of a C from DICE in 18ac (does dicing meat count as dressing it? — probably not). And I was sure the “match” in 28ac had something to do with (Rugby) Sevens.
LOI, however, the always-ugly EMCEE. Then I had to parse it before I felt it OK to turn off the timer. No way I’d have got in under 25:00 for this.
Emceetee
I thought this was a terrific puzzle, with many of the literals well hidden (clue length seldom bothers me). COD to ORATING ahead of JAMBOREE and DESPITE. CHALLAH was unknown and rather tricky I thought, and ORGANDIE last in even though it became the first ‘Quickie’ word to catch me out in just yesterday’s puzzle.
Edited at 2014-03-21 04:11 am (UTC)
Thanks for your input and please join in again.
I think 25A would be better as “Spot in which one gets American support” – the “might” in the clue is padding really. Other than that some very good clues that I enjoyed solving – thank you setter.
And well done Jack, that sinking feeling on blogging day has to be experienced to be really understood
I liked the quirky clues for MAINTOP, ROGER and HYPHEN, though as Jim says, ROGER is a golden oldie. I have eaten CHALLAH often enough in appropriate company and festivity, though I’m peeved by Wiki’s haughty comment “contrary to popular beliefs, Challah bread is not solely a Jewish bread.” Yes it bally is, it’s spelled חלה. Other similar breads are spelled with different orthographies.
There were a lot of money words here in clues and answers, “money” itself three times, perhaps making things harder for seasoned solvers with autopilot on: capital, fund and bread, for example, don’t point to cash answers. Clever setting?
CoD split between DESPITE for smoothness and the above mentioned HYPHEN for inducing the broadest smile.
Back to Telegraph for me. Bye.
Today’s main Times was much harder than it often is, and I struggled myself to get started on it.
Edited at 2014-03-21 10:59 am (UTC)
I found this to be a chewy puzzle and there weren’t many smiles as I was solving it, but there was certainly a sense of achievement when I finished it. I found the SE the trickiest quadrant and CHALLAH was my LOI after HYPHEN. I had never heard of MAINTOP but it was obvious enough from the wordplay.
CHALLAH is everywhere here in NYC and with Passover on the horizon especially. It’s not eaten at the seder (that’s unleavened bread) but afterwards. I don’t much like it – too sweet. I’ve only been to one seder and greatly enjoyed it. I think Z is a scholar of Hebrew.
I feel a bit sorry for Anon having a go at today’s quickie. It’s also a toughie. Glad I wasn’t on blog duty.
I agree with anon that the clue to 29 was a good idea which didn’t work as the ‘-‘ isn’t actually a hyphen.
Edited at 2014-03-21 11:52 am (UTC)
Edited at 2014-03-21 12:36 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2014-03-21 12:42 pm (UTC)
My one quibble is the ‘Roger’ does not mean ‘yes’, it means ‘received’, but the answer is obvious enough.
I needed some of Sue’s tippex at 8d where my first attempt at spelling the answer came out as excede, and at 2d where the man on board was obviously going to be king and the ??A for old man would occur to me later.
I though it was a pangram as my little row of less common letters to cross off as they arose didn’t include W.
COD to jamboree and well done to Jack for blogging a tricky one.
I wasn’t helped by convincing myself early on that the yes man was going to be Noddy.
The thing on the page looked like a hyphen to me, just not in the usual place. If I type bed-ridden thus, then copy the hyphen and paste it here: – is it still not a hyphen?
Edited at 2014-03-21 04:33 pm (UTC)
I found this tough and a little joyless, but pretty satisfying in a ‘no pain no gain’ sort of way.
As far as I’m concerned this ? remains a question mark even though it’s not attached to a question, so this – is undoubtedly a hyphen. Or a dash.
Thanks for explaining everything Jack.
Actually I too banged in Noddy 14ac, it just seemed so right. Roger still doesn’t feel right. Hyphen didn’t really give any trouble but then I am not an expert in these matters. Particularly liked 4ac, 3dn and 17dn as (what I call) Ikea clues.
Not really a fun crossword.
Happy week-end to all.
Nairobi Wallah
This was a “not on wavelength” day for me, I kept laying it down and coming back to it, at one point, with the whole LHS blank apart from DOYEN, even contemplating an abject DNF. However, whether teased out with tweezers or manhandled with crowbars, the solutions – eventually – came. Possibly up to two hours, in dribs and drabs throughout the day. Looking back, can’t see why I made such heavy weather of it. Give or take the usual quibbles, well articulated in others’ comments, all the clues fit nicely enough, with no obscurities.
FOI CONIC, LOI EVENNESS, COD has to be HYPHEN for its sheer ingenuity, although the glorious “old man” misdirection in ORATING and the sarcastic wit of THEOSOPHY run it close seconds.
MAINTOP and CHALLAH were unknown to me, and I was expecting to have at least one of them proved wrong. On the one hand, I get a lot of satisfaction from knowing obscure words or constructing them from the wordplay; but on the other hand I do feel cheated when I DNF on account of wilfully obscure words. However, I imagine that CHALLAH is not so obscure to many people.
All the others looked easy after they’d gone in, but were tough at the time with some clever misdirection. JAMBOREE, BUCKS, EMCEE and many others just failed to materialise without inordinate amounts of thought and an embarrassing amount of alphabet-trawling.
Still, all’s well that ends well. I can remember a time when, even sober, I’d be happy to get half way through a Times cryptic. Or perhaps it’s my memory playing tricks – it seems unlikely I was sober.
I enjoyed HYPHEN for its whimsy. I can only hope that this trend continues and that the setter has the guts to include the obvious:
I’m not on the graveyard shift tonight, which means I’m probably missing all the fun. However, the winner of Accident of the Day has incontestably been decided. It goes to a cycling trumpeter or, perhaps, a trumpeting cyclist. She was, it seems, part of a student-organised event, right up to the moment she cycled into the back of a van. We initially thought she’d lost four teeth, but it turned out she’d only lost three – we found the other one embedded in her palate. That’s what I love about students – they can be so creative when it comes to accidents.
Perhaps not a lol puzzle, but very decent clues on the whole.
(I only used the lol text abbreviation to show how very up to date I am).
I made the fatal error of reading defect as a noun. Felt like a fool. Such a neat clue.
With this one, I thought 21 down (Bread with tea manor house served up) was Staples, so that left me stuck for a good while and and unable to get Hyphen and Emcee. Got the rest, but laboriously, off and on throughout the week. Did not enjoy it one bit. Also struggled with the Quick Cryptic from the same day. Maybe Fridays’ crosswords are harder than other days. Think I’ll stick with Thursdays.
We were assured by the previous crossword editor that there is no policy that certain days of the week will be harder than others, and there’s no reason so far to believe that the new editor has changed this. I’m afraid if you are working on the theory that Thursday’s puzzles are on the easier side I assume you have not yet tackled this week’s (25745)which by general agreement was a toughie.
I hope you will stick around and contribute more adding an identifier of some sort to your messages, or perhaps even opening a Live Journal account (it’s free) and acquiring an avatar.