I’m stepping in at short notice as our regular blogger is unavailable today, so apologies if it is a bit terse. A gentle one to start the week, so I’m expecting some fast times. I was held up only by trying to remember the required wife of HenryVIII which added a minute at the end to take me to 8:59. Thank-you setter. How did you all get on? P.S. I failed to notice and comment that we have a pangram. Thanks Zabadak for pointing that out. P.P.S. Apparently not. We have no F or Y.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Yes, German king cutting party nibbles for impertinent individual (10) |
| JACKANAPES – JA (German for yes) and K (king) in [cutting] CANAPES (nibbles). | |
| 6 | Former PM’s garden (4) |
| EDEN – Double definition. | |
| 8 | I am associated with beer merchant buying from abroad (8) |
| IMPORTER – I’M + PORTER (beer). | |
| 9 | Left one pound in cash (6) |
| LIQUID – L (left) + I (one) + QUID (pound). | |
| 10 | Remove water from bottle to begin with and feel poorly (4) |
| BAIL – Bottle [to begin with] + AIL (feel poorly). | |
| 11 | Band of smooth chaps securing help (4,6) |
| IRON MAIDEN – IRON (smooth) + AID (help) in MEN (chaps). | |
| 12 | Lee in a state of mind that’s primitive? (9) |
| ELEMENTAL – (Lee)* [in a state] + MENTAL (of mind). | |
| 14 | Punter initially keen on horse (5) |
| PINTO – Punter [initially] + INTO (keen on). | |
| 17 | Currency Harry’s friend found in Ford (5) |
| KRONA – RON (Weasley; Harry Potter’s friend) in KA (model of Ford car). | |
| 19 | Certain code quiet cryptic setter uncovered (9) |
| ETIQUETTE – (quiet)* [cryptic] + {s}ETTE{r} [uncovered]. | |
| 22 | Catch a taxi by an American beach (10) |
| COPACABANA – COP (catch) + A + CAB (taxi) + AN + A (American). | |
| 23 | Turning point while hosting cricket team? (4) |
| AXIS – XI (eleven; cricket team) in AS (while). | |
| 24 | Drink supplier put iodine in drink (6) |
| WAITER – I (chemical symbol for Iodine) in WATER (drink). | |
| 25 | Infant to hurry back with first aid item (8) |
| NURSLING – RUN (hurry) [back] -> NUR + SLING (first aid item). | |
| 26 | Gymnast ultimately leaving risky exploit for floor (4) |
| STUN – STUN{t} (risky exploit) without the last letter of gymnasT. | |
| 27 | ChatGPT may fail this, stuttering badly (6,4) |
| TURING TEST – (stuttering)* [badly]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Short-term plan? (9) |
| JAILBREAK – Cryptic definition. A ‘term’ is a time in jail, so a plan to break out of jail, is a plan to shorten the term. | |
| 2 | Upset with specification for baseball attire? (7) |
| CAPSIZE – CAP SIZE (specification for baseball attire). | |
| 3 | Nutter in Barking? Goodness! (8) |
| NUTRIENT – (Nutter in)* [barking]. | |
| 4 | Fitness coach working on a laser printer (8,7) |
| PERSONAL TRAINER – [Working] (on a laser printer)*. | |
| 5 | Meat essential to croquettes a la minute (6) |
| SALAMI – Hidden in croquetteS A LA MInute. | |
| 6 | Beautiful old partner is cracking a bit (9) |
| EXQUISITE – EX (old partner) + IS in, [cracking], QUITE (a bit). | |
| 7 | Obvious occasion to carry papers (7) |
| EVIDENT – ID (papers) in EVENT (occasion). | |
| 13 | Geez! Panama possibly get bronze in part of New York (9) |
| MANHATTAN – MAN! (Geex!) + HAT (panama, possibly) + TAN (get bronze). | |
| 15 | Supervision error (9) |
| OVERSIGHT – Double definition. | |
| 16 | Muscle right into boy’s military unit (8) |
| SQUADRON – QUAD (muscle) + R (right) in SON (boy). | |
| 18 | Speech read to mob — Republican senator turning up during it (4,3) |
| RIOT ACT – R (Republican) + CATO (senator) [turning up] -> OTAC in IT. | |
| 20 | Copy French island’s material (7) |
| TEXTILE – TEXT (copy) + ILE (island in French). | |
| 21 | Repeat — one of Henry’s wives got beheaded (6) |
| PARROT – PARR (one of Henry’s wives) + {g}OT [beheaded]. | |
I did think I’d be on for a rare sub-10 minute solve but slowed a little in the south on the first pass. Fortunately all the remaining gaps were easy to fill with crossers – including the surprising JAILBREAK which I certainly was not expecting. ETIQUETTE, TURING TEST and the lovely anagram spot that is PERSONAL TRAINER make my podium. All done in bang on 11 minutes.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Yes, a nice start to the week.
The contrast between “smooth chaps” and Iron Maiden made me laugh. And for 21dn I went through all their christian names before starting on the surnames…
I would spell it nurseling I think, but nursling is preferred by Collins.
About 12 minutes.
– Didn’t know JACKANAPES but got there from checkers and wordplay
– Also needed all the checkers, particularly the starting E, to get ELEMENTAL
– Haven’t come across NURSLING very often
Thanks setter, and thanks for stepping in John!
FOI Eden
LOI Elemental
COD Jailbreak
9.15. Strewth John, you did that blog almost in less time than it took me to do the puzzle, on a day when I set a sub ten for the second day in a row! And you had to use the entire keyboard!
So, yes, not hard, with a fair bit of product placement along the way, if you include the band.
Many thanks!
Thanks. In my haste, I failed to check for a pangram. Blog updated.
Unless my eyes deceive me, there is no F and no Y in the grid…
No. You are right. Blog updated again.
Could have made the puzzle pangrammatic.
Change EDEN to EYED, and change WAITER to WAFTER.
Clearly I didn’t check properly either! But John still had to use the whole keyboard!
16 mins but somehow not trivial. LOI PINTO but I also struggled for a few secs over PARROT and WAITER. It was the got that got beheaded.
COD to IRON MAIDEN. As a teenager I painted their 1st album cover on my bedroom wall, floor to ceiling.
Thanks to setter and John.
11:45 for a PB but feel this could have been sub ten. Struggled with the JACKANAPES and JAILBREAK despite seeing the German JA immediately. LOI KRONA which I couldn’t parse but now seems obvious reading the blog. I did own a Ka at one point although I don’t have fond memories of it.
Favourite today TURING TEST although I think AI can pass it now.
Thanks blogger and setter.
Made the sub-10 with few issues, the rare JACKANAPES, and waiting for the long anagrams to get crossers. ‘Stuttering’ and TURING TEST my favourite memorable anagram to be treasured.
May I be the first to say that it’s Star Wars day? Thank you.
9’35”, thanks john and setter.
May the fourth be with you.
Does that make me a “Star Wars Baby”? It’s my 60th birthday today
28 minutes. Time lost on KRONA as with checkers in place it was going to be that or KRONE but I didn’t know either element of the wordplay. Yet another Harry Potter reference that meant nothing to me. Eventually I vaguely remembered there might be a car called KA but I’d no idea it was made by Ford.
A rare COD award from me for JAILBREAK.
Thanks for covering for me, John. Not many excuses, really. Didn’t realise it was my day.
Gentle stuff, finishing with JACKANAPES, after a couple of the Downs had ruled out the bizarre ‘jacksnipes’.
12:40
Abject failure. Defeated by JAILBREAK which simply escaped me having only seen it used in a reference to the illicit modification of mobile phone operating systems in addition to the obvious usage. The resulting uncertainty distracted me from the Harry Potter allusion entirely. I permitted myself an harrumph whereas perhaps a MER was more appropriate – not had much practice with the latter, I’m afraid.
Particularly galling as plain sailing otherwise.
Thanks to setter and the blogger off the subs bench.
16.33.
Would have been sub-10 and close to record pace, but I just could not get JAILBREAK and KRONA.
Eventually, and far far too slowly, I saw RON = Harry’s friend, then things fell into place. Very strange to spend so little time on all but two clues, and a whole 7 minutes on those last ones!
Enjoyed it very much all round.
16:51
Plain sailing.
Thanks, J.
Very quick for me. No complaints. Thanks setter and John.
15:03
Very low Snitch of 52 – think I took a few moments to get on the wavelength though no major issues. Liked PARROT and JAILBREAK – thanks for stepping up to the plate, John.
Pretty quick 20′ for me. VHO of JACKANAPES once I heard it, possibly from this parish. Enjoyed IRON MAIDEN. Still not sure I fully understand JAILBREAK as a cryptic. Like Mike Harper, looking in vain for the F & Y…
Thanks John and setter
No particular difficulties. Military in 16dn seemed odd since I think of military as army and squadron as RAF, although ‘armed forces’ makes it OK. And why baseball particularly in 2dn? In many sports one wears a cap. Ron was a mystery to me, should have thought of Harry Potter. NURSLING seems an odd spelling although it evidently isn’t. It would be good if these recorders of use of language could tell us what percentage use the E. It certainly looked like a pangram with the Q and the Z etc, but no F or Y and so no help for the LOI.
Like most others I found this pretty easy but good fun, 12.33 is among my best times – it could have been even quicker had I not spent time laboriously going through Henry VIII’s wives before uncovering PARROT. I used to live near a place called NURSLING (it’s on the outskirts of Southampton). COD JAILBREAK.
Thanks John for stepping in at short notice, and thanks setter.
10:30 – I doubt we’ll see a better candidate for a sub-10 for a while but SQUADRON and EXQUISITE just tipped me over.
18 minutes. Not too many problems, with JACKANAPES going in straight away and providing some helpful first letters for the early down clues. KRONA took some winkling out and I’ll have to look up to see exactly what a TURING TEST is. LOI after a minute or so was PARROT; like JerryW, I went through the first names before the surnames, starting with Catherine (of A) and ending with PARR.
That’s less time than it took me to do the Concise! 31mins but still don’t quite follow Jailbreak
A ‘term’ is time spent in prison, if that gives the right nudge.
Thanks for stepping in to answer this, Jeremy. Will elucidate in the blog.
Had brainfreeze in the NW so proceeded south and started with TRAINER. I got PERSONAL a bit later. In the meanwhile the SE provided fertile ground and I settled in to the solve. IRON MAIDEN made me smile. Back in the NW I constructed JACKANAPES and the rest fell into place. JAILBREAK also raised a smile. STUN and WAITER were last 2 in. 12:59. Thanks setter and John.
Lovely puzzle and enjoyed the spin around Harry Potter, Alan Turing and “jackanapes”.
Thanks to Jeremy above for the nudge on “jailbreak” as was in the camp here that didn’t fully get it although checkers left nothing else.
Just had “capsize” left today and like the clue and maybe could have got it with more time.
Thanks very much to both our blogger and setter.
A nice Bank Holiday workout. Would never have got JAILBREAK if I hadn’t had the opening ‘J’.
14:31 A good puzzle for a Monday. Mostly straightforward but Cato and Parr made me stop and think. I liked JAILBREAK, IRON MAIDEN and TURING TEST.
Thanks to John and the setter.
30 minutes finishing up in the NW with two CODs Jailbreak and Capsize. Made a pleasant lunch even more enjoyable.
KRONE. Zut. Need to learn my cars. Otherwise 17’27”.
As an escapee from the QC and a wannabe solver of the ‘biggie’ I found this to be very acceptable fare. All done in 30 minutes, about as fast as I ever manage for the 15×15. A good day.
Well done!
Thank you!
As John says, a gentle start to proceedings. I was fortunate to spot my COD on the first pass (I allowed myself a chuckle).
FOI EDEN
LOI TURING TEST
COD JAILBREAK
TIME 5:10
I felt this could have been a QC – 13 mins, including two or three mins in the same dilemma as jackkt about KRONA. Thanks Blogger for explaining the wordplay; I have heard of Ron Weasley, but neither he nor H Potter entered my head. I knew there was a TURING TEST though I’d forgotten what it is. I agree that ‘military’ (16D) should be confined to armies and soldiers, but I think a squadron may be an army (as well as an RAF) unit, hence ‘squaddies’. First in was EDEN (possibly the easiest clue of the year so far) and last KRONA. My favourite three clues: to PINTO, JAILBREAK and PARROT. Thank you Setter and Blogger.
Thoroughly enjoyed this – much as I still enjoy the trickier solves, it’s nice to have the occasional easy one. 13 mins, with JAILBREAK making me smile.
25 mins so quick for me, and very enjoyable. Last 2 in, WAITER & PARROT for some odd reason held me up a bit.
I liked the JACKANAPES & JAILBREAK pairing, good fun.
As an aside, perhaps they should change the name of the cocktail « Sex on the beach » to COPACABANA. Sounds much nicer to me…..
Thanks John and setter.
16:14 for me, how on earth is this SNITCH sub 50?! Not the hardest puzzle in the world, but aside from the pangram maybe helping with a couple of things, this sure seems like a strange collection of entries to have such a low rating…
No time to report as I am solving this while watching the world snooker final. A pity in a way that I didn’t concentrate on it, as most clues were solved on first pass. I’m fairly sure that I would have been under twenty minutes which is nippy for me.
Emboldened by a particularly easy QC, I took ~monthly stab at the 15×15 and, for the first time, got a clean solve. 28:43, for a default PB. Thanks setter and John!
31 minutes, which is a PB for me on a 15×15. Very enjoyable, with no MERs from me. Never managed to parse JAILBREAK but the blog explained it. FOI JACKANAPES, LOI EDEN. Liked LIQUID and WAITER, NHO TURING TEST, COD has to be OVERSIGHT. Thanks for stepping in John and thanks to this setter.
7m, fully parsed which is about as quick as I get these days, especially after an afternoon of pizza and wine at the village fete. Liked IRON MAIDEN.
About 29 minutes, which is fast for me, though it felt slow, and spoiled it by going for KRONE, being unaware of the Ka.
i had the same problem. I’d never heard of the Ford KA since it is not (as far as I know) sold in the US. But it seemed more likely as a name for a car (homophone of “car” for a start) than KE, so luckily I went with it and got all green.
Wish I had done the smart thing you did!
I’d never heard of the KA but guessed (correctly) that it must be a Ford vehicle. I have never read Harry Potter but you can’t live on this earth without knowing some things about it, like the school being called Hogwarts and that Harry’s main friends being Ron and Hermione. There is Voldemort who cannot be mentioned, but I have no idea why. Plus quiddich. I took 38 minutes which seems slow since it was easy, but I was cooking dinner at the same time. Not actually as much of a handicap as it might seem since I could look at a clue, then go and throw some onions in while solving at the same time. But I reckon if I had focused on it 100% it would have been about 20 minutes.
A these days for me rare foray away from the QC and I was pleased to finish in what would be somewhere near a PB of 17:34
DNF as I made silly errors with MANHATTeN and COcACABANA- I wondered why I couldn’t parse them.
I wasn’t concentrating.
Otherwise nice puzzle.