.
My solving time was 32 minutes for all but 3 letters, but this was a technical DNF because I had rather lost patience with the puzzle by then so I used aids to complete the last word. It’s a shame that I didn’t enjoy it much because this is my 500th blog of weekday 15×15 puzzles (QCs are up to 225) and I would have preferred a more satisfying offering to mark the occasion.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
Across | |
1 | In America worship gets to a higher level (8) |
UPRAISES | |
PRAISE (worship) contained by [in] US (America) | |
6 | Girl jokes when speaking in bed (6) |
MATRIX | |
Sounds like [when speaking] “May tricks” (girl jokes). This was the clue that did for me as I had no idea that ‘bed’ was a definition of ‘matrix’ and the sound-alike wordplay only became apparent once I knew what the answer was. Way down a long list of definitions SOED has matrix as the bed or hollowed place in a slab in which a monumental brass is fixed. Collins offers a couple of variations. Why would anyone know this? | |
9 | Minister stopping short, interrupted by a French beast (6) |
VICUNA | |
VICA{r} (minister) [stopping short] contains [interrupted by] UN (a, French). It’s a llama. Another obscurity for me, but the wordplay was helpful. | |
10 | Swiftness with which the thing eats into plant on allotment? (8) |
CELERITY | |
IT (the thing) contained by [eats into] CELERY (plant on allotment). Unless I’m missing something, ‘on allotment’ adds nothing and only serves to confuse the issue. Celery is not the most popular of vegetables because of its bitter taste, so I’d be surprised if many allotment holders grow it. It goes nicely with a strong cheese, especially Stilton, but other than that, I’d never eat it. | |
11 | A word from IT to be effective when spoken (4) |
BYTE | |
Sounds like [when spoken] “bite” (be effective). Hm… | |
12 | One copper with external protection, heading off to get transport (10) |
HELICOPTER | |
I (one) + COP (copper – policeman) contained by [with external] {s}HELTER (protection) [heading off]. ‘Copper’ cluing COP is feeble. | |
14 | Worm finding mate after short journey (8) |
TRICHINA | |
TRI{p} (journey) [short], CHINA (mate – CRS, plate). Another unknown. | |
16 | Sweet wine takes no time to get word of approval (4) |
OKAY | |
{t}OKAY (sweet wine) [no time – t]. I knew of the wine from a 1929 song of the same title by Noel Coward, but also it has come up here on a few occasions. | |
18 | Spot unwanted visitor in garden? (4) |
MOLE | |
Two meanings | |
19 | Drink cleric knocked back with empty talk (8) |
VERMOUTH | |
REV (cleric) reversed [knocked back], MOUTH (empty talk – bragging). All mouth and (no) trousers! | |
21 | Party acquiring dubious votes — the limit possibly for famous Russian (10) |
DOSTOEVSKY | |
DO (party), anagram [dubious] of VOTES, SKY (the limit possibly). The vaguest of definitions forces solvers to rely on wordplay, checkers and enumeration. | |
22 | Ship‘s load, about to be discharged (4) |
ARGO | |
{c}ARGO (load) [about – c – to be discharged]. | |
24 | By a large lake Heather slips maybe (8) |
LINGERIE | |
LING (heather), ERIE (large lake) | |
26 | Simpletons so timid, having lost heart sadly (6) |
IDIOTS | |
Anagram [sadly] of SO TI{m}ID [having lost heart] | |
27 | Speak ill of brilliant ace, the writer (6) |
DEFAME | |
DEF (brilliant), A (ace), ME (the writer) | |
28 | Groups gathering information — about a thousand pieces (8) |
SEGMENTS | |
SETS (groups) containing [gathering] GEN (information) containing [about] M (a thousand). A Russian doll clue. |
Down | |
2 | Be nosy about four ladies? (5) |
PRIVY | |
PRY (be nosy) containing [about] IV (four) | |
3 | An attractive sort of voice that Renee often has (5,6) |
ACUTE ACCENT | |
A (an), CUTE (attractive), ACCENT (sort of voice). As in Renée Zellweger. | |
4 | Has this film finally bombed? Or maybe it’s this! (5,3) |
SMASH HIT | |
Anagram [bombed] of HAS THIS {fil}M [finally] | |
5 | A vile princess is involved in historic rebellion (8,7) |
SICILIAN VESPERS | |
Anagram [involved] of A VILE PRINCESS. I’d heard the expression but didn’t know its historical meaning. I thought it was a work by Monteverdi! | |
6 | Hostility in country church (6) |
MALICE | |
MALI (country), CE (church) | |
7 | Possibly Dartmoor’s big mound of rubbish piled up (3) |
TOR | |
ROT (rubbish) reversed [piled up]. There are lots of tors on Dartmoor of which Haytor is perhaps the most famous. It’s around 1500ft high and I’m rather surprised that I have a photo of myself, aged 11, taken at its summit in 1959 . As far as I’m aware that was my first and only attempt at such an adventure. | |
8 | Experiencing difficulty. but evidently not off one’s trolley (2,3,4) |
IN THE CART | |
A definition and a cryptic hint. I can’t say I knew the expression with this meaning but I found it on-line, decribed as ‘obsolete’. Apparently it comes from the practice of taking prisoners for punishment or to their execution in carts. Victims were transported to the gallows in a cart, which was also used as the means of execution by attaching the noose and then driving the cart away. ‘Off one’s trolley’ means mad. There’s a rogue punctuation mark in the middle of the clue. | |
13 | Expert being paid to take the case likely to stir up anger? (11) |
PROVOCATIVE | |
PRO (expert being paid)), VOCATIVE (case – grammar) | |
15 | Act to probe the iron spread out in mineral (9) |
RHODONITE | |
DO (act) contained by [to probe} anagram [spread out] of THE IRON. Another unknown, but the wordplay and checkers presented limited options. | |
17 | Fish that is grand, superior to two others (8) |
GRAYLING | |
G (grand), RAY LING (two others – fish). ‘Superior’ is simply a placement indicator in a Down clue. | |
20 | Ruling to wane, when being ignored (6) |
DECREE | |
DECRE{as}E (wane) [when – as – being ignored] | |
23 | See bird, for example, flying north (3,2) |
GET IT | |
TIT (bird} + EG (for example) reversed [flying north] | |
25 | Indian location showing ambition, no end (3) |
GOA | |
GOA{l} (ambition) [no end] |
Congratulations, Jack, and thanks, on your 500. Hope to see another 500.
Edited at 2021-06-15 07:11 am (UTC)
I wouldn’t be surprised if some put in RHONODITE. My knowledge of Verdi (not Monte) helped me with SICILIAN VESPERS, which I’d also never heard of.
Congrats, Jack, on the great accomplishment!
Edited at 2021-06-15 01:18 am (UTC)
Rhodonite guessable as back-formed from rhodium. The obscure worm was annoying, having to guess between TRIp or TREk (or any other random 4-letter word). Liked SMASH HIT a lot, thanks setter and blogger and congratulations on your 500.
Congrats, Jack!
After 30 mins pre-brekker, having proudly negotiated Trichina/Rhodonite and Sicilian Vespers, I was left with the ungettable In/On the something (probably cart, but ?) and the bed, pah.
Pity.
Thanks setter and congrats Jackkt.
Edited at 2021-06-15 06:55 am (UTC)
Edited at 2021-06-15 06:56 am (UTC)
Congratulations jackkt on 500 and thank you as I needed you today for three of the answers.
Edited at 2021-06-15 06:17 am (UTC)
I also didn’t know how DEF = brilliant, so thanks for that, too.
Well done on the 500, Jack!
Was partly aware def = brilliant, but checked in the dictionary so another reason for DNF.
Andyf
Well done on the 500 Jack. Keep up the good work!
I was undone the same as nearly everyone else, by the nho IN THE CART, and MATRIX, after all the hard work of TRICHINA and RHODONITE.
Thanks jack and setter.
IN THE CART, TRICHINA, DEF = brilliant, RHODONITE.
Strangely I knew that meaning of MATRIX but it was still my LOI (I’d been thinking 8D began with ON and it was only when I desperately tried other letters that I .saw MATRIX fitted.
Congratulations Jack
Congratulations and thanks to jacckt on your 500.
Edited at 2021-06-15 07:02 am (UTC)
However, there are a couple of things that irritate me. The first is the complaint about obscurities. Of course, one person’s obscurity is another’s write-in and vice versa. Trust the wordplay should be the watchword. MATRIX was a case in point. I didn’t know that meaning of the word, but having considered all the female names I knew it eventually came to me. If setters were to exclude words that some people might not know the resuly would be very anodyne crosswords. ‘Obscure word clued as anagram’ is a frequent gripe. In my experience, if all the crossers are in place, it is almost always obvious where the unchecked letters must go.
My other bugbear is the absurd expression of being on (or not on) the setter’s wavelength. This suggests that a setter constructs all his (or her, I suppose) clues in the same way, which is never the case. I guess ‘I struggled to get on the setter’s wavelength’ sounds less stark than ‘I found this puzzle difficult’, which is, of course, what it means.
Apart from the above, I always look forward to reading the blog and the comments. More power to the bloggers’ elbows!
DavidH
Most of the complaints I recall about ‘obscure’ words clued as anagrams have been about foreign words, sometimes proper nouns, where the placement of letters may not be apparent unless one also has knowledge of the foreign tongue and word-construction.
Thanks again for joining in and for expressing your appreciation of the TfTT blogs.
I agree, I don’t complain about obscurities (I hope), I just assume I know less about stuff than the setter does, and learn from it. Then forget.
The ‘wavelength’ thing is a personal feeling, some days you seem to solve faster than others, just as some days the putts go in and some days they don’t, although your level of ability (or lack of) at putting is a constant.
Thanks for your contribution, stay tuned. Pip
Good to hear from you, and I completely agree that the puzzles should include relatively little-known words: deriving unknowns from wordplay is perhaps the most satisfying thing about solving them. However the Times crossword is generally supposed to be solvable by someone with a reasonably good vocabulary without reference to a dictionary. To this end, setters and editor make some effort to ensure that more unusual words are indicated with clear wordplay, to give those who might not know the word a sporting chance of getting the answer.
This intention has been explicitly stated by various editors over the years, and it is obvious to me as a solver of Mephisto puzzles. Take this clue for instance from a recent Mephisto:
‘Resident’s one to stop part of timber scaffolding’
The answer here is LEIDGER (an obsolete word for a resident), the wordplay I (one) contained in LEDGER (a horizontal timber in scaffolding). Very few people are going to know either of these words, but this sort of thing is fair game in barred-grid puzzles, where there’s an expectation that you will use Chambers. I don’t think you would ever see a clue like this in the daily puzzles. This principle is applied very consistently: again I know this from my own experience, because I solve close to 100% of the daily puzzles without aids, whereas I solve precisely 0% of Mephistos without using Chambers. This is not an accident.
Since the guiding principle undeniably exists and since (in my view at least) it is a desirable one, it seems only natural that we should discuss whether we feel that the puzzles meet the standard. Of course the question of what ‘a reasonably good vocabulary’ means, and what counts as an ‘obscurity’ will always be subjective, but to say that anything goes doesn’t in my view reflect what the puzzles are supposed to be about.
On the subject of anagrams, I thought that yesterday’s CEMBALO, where there really wasn’t anywhere else to put the letters, was fine, but occasionally it is impossible to work this out if you don’t know the word (there was a particularly egregious example in a recent puzzle but the solution hasn’t been published yet so I won’t mention it). I think that sort of clue is unsporting on the part of the setter and I will say so.
When I talk about ‘wavelength’ it’s more than just a reflection of the puzzle’s difficulty: it’s a way of expressing the fact that I personally found a puzzle more difficult or easy than others. So if it takes me 25 minutes to solve a puzzle that took George (glheard, whose average solving time is broadly similar to mine) 7 minutes, I would say I was ‘off the wavelength’. I’m open to other ways of expressing the same thing, but it’s a phenomenon I observe quite frequently so it’s useful to have a shorthand.
Sorry for the rant but you started it! 😉
Edited at 2021-06-15 11:16 am (UTC)
As for wavelength, I suspect it’s more about the solver than the setter. Sometimes I can spend ages looking at clues completely dumbfounded. And on seeing the answer feeling “I’d never get that.” Even when no-one else mentions it. Sometimes I see that answer and feel like an idiot, “I should have got that immediately.” Sometimes I immediately see the definition and wordplay elements and it seems easier than the QC, even when multiple other contributors say, “I had real difficulty with this clue.” Reading the blog, I’m not the only one; no matter what its origin, wavelength exists.
“Bed” wouldn’t yield matrix readily for me, the girl only emerges when you guess the answer, and tricks is a bit of a stretch for “jokes”: neither word has the other listed in my Chambers.
Contrary to intuition, apparently I’ve never sung the SICILIAN VESPERS, but like the St Valentines day massacre it rang a faint historical note.
IN the cart only because I was thinking of things like in the mire (and other unsavoury stickinesses) and it didn’t occur tome to change it.
Got there in the end by guess and good luck, in 21.25
An impressive 500 up, Jack. Nolite hic illegitimus te carborundum!
Nice one (500) Jackkt!
Well done jackkt, I can’t be too far behind you but I don’t know how to find out how many I’ve blogged.
Kevin, there is a whole world out there!
I was out and about today for my ‘MOT’ – at Shanghai No.1 and never had a good run at this beast. DNF but knew 6ac MATRIX due to my ‘A level Geology. Thus my COD
FOI 2dn PRIVY – a council toilet
(LOI) 22ac DEF-AME – DEF-man is modern Jamaican
WOD 5dn SICILIAN VESPERS – I was once nearly killed by one – in Palermo
‘A vile princess’ certainly kick-starts the imagination -I can think of a couple!
Jack that’s 500 – DEF-MAN!
Edited at 2021-06-15 10:14 am (UTC)
Annoyed of Chester.
Plus, I was a RHONODITE, which seemed the more likely answer to the usual bugbear of foreign/obscure words clued as anagrams.
Also NHO VICUNA or TRICHINA, but they were more gettable.
Congratulations to our blogger and also many thanks to him for being a behind-the-scenes mensch for some of us.
I’d never heard of DEF = brilliant either, not into Hip Hop which was the complete opposite of the guitar-based music I was brought up on.
RHODONITE entered with a shrug.
About on the limit for obscure words, terms and general knowledge for me, but no complaints.
Thanks and congrats to Jack for the big D.
I knew IN THE CART (which made MATRIX an easy spot, although I thought more grid than bed), and I offer you the explanation of my old English teacher, Frank Millard, who thought it originated from the tumbrils used to transport the aristocrats to the guillotine during the French Revolution. The common exclamation was “Now we’re really in the cart”, hence heading to our doom. I’ve no real proof of the correctness of this, but it’s certainly plausible.
FOI UPRAISES
LOI DECREE
COD SMASH HIT
TIME 10:42
Thanks to the setter. Thanks and congratulations to Jack for his fine achievement.
Hearty congratulations on your imperious milestone. Your blog is invariably highly entertaining, informative and stimulating. Your encouragement to newcomers to have a go at the 15 x 15 is exemplary. Enjoyment lies in the journey even if occasionally the end point is not fully attained. You are a star.
Here’s to the next 500… Cheers!
Congrats Jack on your 500. Hopefully many more to come.
Several NHOs — “Sicilian Vespers” (but crossers helped), “Trichina” and “Rhodonite” where the clueing was helpful in both cases.
COD 17 d “Grayling”, if only because I’d heard of it!
Overall I found the puzzle both satisfying and a little irritating to tackle.
Thanks to Jack for the blog. In particular, may I say that “500 not out” is in the Brian Lara class — an achievement you should be proud of!
In addition I have very much appreciated your frequent words of clarification and occasionally moderation over the time I have been following this site, which has very much set the right tone in my opinion. Here’s to the next 500!
The other was DECREE which completely eluded me because, as I later discovered, I’d inadvertently transposed the two central vowels in DOSTOEVSKY with the result that my checkers at 20d appeared to be — O — R — E.
So a DNF for me. I suppose I could have double-checked the correct spelling of DOSTOEVSKY but I worry that by doing so I’d be resorting to aids. Or is the use of a dictionary (or other reference work) to simply check on one’s spelling perhaps perfectly acceptable, and does not count as an aid? Perhaps someone would be kind enough to clarify.
Well done Jackkt on your sterling blogging work, much appreciated by this solver.
Congratulations from me, too, Jack, on your 500th blog. I always enjoy your blogs particularly because we often have similar approaches (and similar solving times), so, perhaps a sentiment you won’t share with me, I hope there will be 500 more!
Edited at 2021-06-15 08:54 pm (UTC)
I didn’t know the way 6ac said it. (Saw the film on TV but with subtitles – sound muted.)
Edited at 2021-06-15 10:41 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2021-06-16 01:37 am (UTC)
Nice puzzle otherwise. Belated thanks setter and blogger.
I thought this was easy when I started it last night after a busy day. Looked forward to knocking off the rest this morning but got precisely nowhere for all the reasons already rehearsed in this interesting set of comments.