Solving time: 7:36
Nothing too difficult here I feel, though I wasn’t aware of the particular meaning of 4d. I liked the clever &lit at 9a and am startled to learn of the UK’s lethargy and idleness having read up on 16a’s wordplay. Clearly, none of you successful solvers will be wearing that particular early morning attire…
What did you all think?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | I am sharp with Mompou’s last piano piece (9) |
| IMPROMPTU – I‘M (I am) PROMPT (sharp) with last letter of {Mompo}U
PROMPT = sharp as in timekeeping e.g. “I’ll be there at 10am sharp” An IMPROMPTU (loosely meaning “offhand”) is a free-form musical composition with the character of an ex tempore improvisation as if prompted by the spirit of the moment, usually for a solo instrument, such as piano. Federico Mompou (1893-1987) was a Spanish composer and pianist, some of whom’s output included short, relatively improvisatory music, often described as “delicate” or “intimate”. |
|
| 6 | Public transport broken — time’s lost (3) |
| BUS – BUS |
|
| 8 | Fashionable friend of Barbie in yellow (7) |
| CHICKEN – CHIC (Fashionable) KEN (friend of Barbie)
KEN and Barbie were each named after the two children of Barbie’s creator Ruth Handler, co-founder of toy manufacturer Mattel. |
|
| 9 | Opening for dealing with drizzle? (5) |
| DRAIN – D{ealing} [Opening (letter) for] with RAIN (drizzle)
This looks like an &lit to me, where the whole clue is both the definition and the wordplay. (I am sure that I shall be corrected if I am wrong) |
|
| 10 | Who’ll make a good case new PM’s role should be this? (12) |
| CABINETMAKER – Double definition where both are of the mildly cryptic variety | |
| 12 | Dog is shy round the heartless (6) |
| COYOTE – COY (shy) O (round) T{h}E [heartless i.e. remove the middle letter] | |
| 13 | Girl penning info for to-do list (6) |
| AGENDA – ADA (Girl) containing [penning] GEN (info) | |
| 16 | Scolding daughter in early morning attire, not good? (8-4) |
| DRESSING-DOWN – D (daughter) in DRESSING I was amused to read in Wikipedia, that towards the end of the 20th century, dressing gowns fell out of fashion within the USA, as wearing such garments became increasingly associated with idleness and lethargy. However, this is in stark contrast to the UK where they are still in common use today. What does that say about us Brits? |
|
| 19 | Weak dove going west shows spirit (5) |
| VODKA – Reverse hidden [going west shows] in Weak dove | |
| 20 | Pictures of mirage shimmering before day’s end (7) |
| IMAGERY – Anagram [shimmering] of MIRAGE before the end of {da}Y | |
| 22 | Use oars in line (3) |
| ROW – Double definition | |
| 23 | Absorbed strange need to keep entire amount (9) |
| ENGROSSED – Anagram [strange] of NEED containing [to keep] GROSS (entire amount)
GROSS here in the sense of income before tax |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Move slowly inside church (4) |
| INCH – IN (inside) CH (church) | |
| 2 | Expensive to have mother in commanding position (7) |
| PRIMACY – PRICY (Expensive) containing [to have…in] MA (mother) | |
| 3 | Area covered by very good variety of tree (3) |
| OAK – A (Area) inside [covered by] OK (very good) | |
| 4 | Pimp’s embarrassed to sleep over (6) |
| PANDER – RED (embarrassed) NAP (sleep) all reversed [over]
Collins online, amongst others, defines a PANDER as a person who procures a sexual partner for another i.e. a pimp I did not know this meaning of the word. |
|
| 5 | Remove blockage as old as the hills in one piece (9) |
| UNDAMAGED – UNDAM (Remove blockage) AGED (as old as the hills)
UNDAM exists in Collins online. |
|
| 6 | British want jet (5) |
| BLACK – B (British) LACK (want) | |
| 7 | Grain as processed for alcoholic drink (7) |
| SANGRIA – Anagram [processed] of GRAIN AS | |
| 11 | Lacking will during cricket match, scoffed (9) |
| INTESTATE – IN (during) TEST (cricket match) ATE (scoffed) | |
| 12 | Body chap found in vehicle (7) |
| CADAVER – DAVE (chap) found in CAR (vehicle) | |
| 14 | Novelty of seven points? (7) |
| NEWNESS – N E W N E S S (seven points… of the compass) | |
| 15 | Ceasing transmitting — not the first (6) |
| ENDING – |
|
| 17 | Give funds to finish town’s centre (5) |
| ENDOW – END (finish) then middle letters [centre] of {t}OW{n} | |
| 18 | Broadcast I’d watched (4) |
| EYED – Homophone [broadcast] of I’D | |
| 21 | Violent struggle leaving New York behind in the past (3) |
| AGO – AGO Collins online mentions ‘struggle’ and Merriam Webster mentions ‘violent struggle’ in their respective definitions of AGONY |
|
I thought this was a great QC, would be a good one to show a new solver, with a good variety of clues, nice surfaces, and nothing too obscure or difficult. Maybe on the easy side but I really enjoyed it.
12:49 with no errors. I don’t think I’ve heard the word PRIMACY before but so generously clued that it had to be. I liked DRESSING DOWN but am giving COD to NEWNESS. FOI – BUS, LOI – PANDER, I haven’t come across this definition of it either. Thanks Joker and Mike.
Pretty straighforward, although COYOTE took some time, as I tried to think of a dog name that included TE. I was surprised to see that the ‘pimp’ meaning PANDER was new to some, as it’s the only meaning I know. I see that Collins UK gives it as the second meaning, while Collins US has it as first; in either case the other meaning is derived from the pimp meaning. (ODE gives only ‘pimp’, and marks it ‘dated’.) 5:50.
I can assure you that this usage of pander would be unfamiliar to virtually everyone this side of the pond.
Bearing in mind it comes from Pandarus, who is the go-between for Troilus & Cressida in both Chaucer and Shakespeare, this would once have been familiar to anyone on this side of the pond with any grounding in English literature!
That’s where I went wrong, being a scientist and all 🙂
No need to be offensive – I only did English to A level myself!
Sorry if that came over as offensive, G – not my intention. I was just observing that even if what you say is now true, which it probably is, it certainly used not to be!
Equally sorry if I overreacted – I know this is a club for ladies and gentlemen 🙂
I do think there were enough people saying NHO to justify my comment.
10:15 . I thought OK just meant good not very good. Similarly I didn’t think of AGONY as a struggle. I thought of carcass and corpse before CADAVER came to mind!
I think you have to read OK as an affirmative response to a request. As in: Very good, Sir.
Thanks! That had bothered me too.
I was thinking this one was too easy, and then became annoyed when I couldn’t see every answer at once. Coyote and dressing down were the cause of this. Fortunately I knew pander in its root meaning, so no trouble there.
Time: 7:06
11 minutes. I’m another who didn’t know the required meaning of PANDER.
Coming back to this, it finally struck me that as a noun meaning ‘pimp’, I’d use ‘panderer’ not ‘pander’; ‘pander’ for me is a verb. But then ‘pimp’ is also a verb (as well as a noun, of course). Pandaros is a Trojan warrior in the Iliad; it is Boccacio who makes him a go-between, which is how Chaucer and Shakespeare characterize him; the word predates ‘pimp’.
I had the same problem, the s on the end as a contraction of ‘is’ seems to force the noun, so in my mind should be panderer, but given the derivation a pander (ie someone like Pandaros) seems reasonable with the verb being a back formation from the noun – maybe a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing.
Ditto re PANDER, held up by a few like NEWNESS and CABINET MAKER, not thinking that cabinet and case meant the same until I saw what my books were sitting in. 9.03, thanks Joker and Mike.
Solved this in my dressing gown as I do every morning! Then up to wake eldest for the bus, shower and out! COYOTE was the hold up, once IINTESTATE went in I saw where the heartless ‘the’ had to go it seemed so easy. PRIMACY, followed so I could stop trying to force ‘primate’ in. Not in the office today, so outfit change to running kit – hat and gloves included. All green in an absorbing 16.57.
Another dressing gown and Jim jam solver!
Interrupted by a lengthy telephone call, so happy with an overall elapsed time of 30 mins. Struggled a bit with PRIMACY but knew PANDER. Thought CABINETMAKER was clever.
A good time of 18.11 with much enjoyment of a typical Joker puzzle. Pander was only known here as verb akin to appease, so we persuaded ourselves that there was another similar definition for pimp as a verb, perhaps close to “pimp my ride”. Every day’s a school day here 😀
Spent too long having misread “ the heartless” to be the h (was thinking heart) so trying to find a dog that was an anagram of is shy h.
COD to chicken and also enjoyed Mike’s explanation of Barbie and Ken.
Thanks
Yes, I was trying to work around an “h”: I find reading the clue properly takes half the fun out of it…
Indeed! I had something out of reach in the back of my mind that I now think was probably the Shar Pei which would nearly have worked!
Fairly easy going this morning, the only tricky(ish) bits were IMPROMPTU and PANDER as both meanings of those words were either unknown to me or forgotten.
Finished in 6.31 with CsOD to NEWNESS and CHICKEN.
Thanks Mike and Joker
NHO Pander with this definition but the wordplay gave it away.
For 10ac I was slightly disappointed that the clue and the answer both contained “Make”, surely it would have been easy enough to make a surface that worked without it? This held me up for a little while as I was thinking it had to be something that didn’t end in “maker”. Apart from that slight criticism I thought it was a nice puzzle today.
Re: Dressing G[D]own and “What does that say about us Brits?” – perhaps it says we are less influenced by faddism and more influenced by the utility (rather than any perception of external perception) of garments that are designed for utility?
9:53 for this enjoyable puzzle, mostly straightforward but I was held up on PANDER (another who didn’t link it to Pimp), AGO (Agony as violent struggle also not obvious to me) and COYOTE (not the first – or for that matter umpteenth – species of dog that came to mind).
Many thanks Mike for the blog
Cedric
Funny I am a new solver and found this much harder than yesterdays which I came close to finishing. I just did not get the clues today
☹️
Yes, much the same.
Very much enjoyed yesterdays, hated today’s
Sometimes they just don’t click with me (often with Joker, I think) – just not on the same wavelength
I wouldn’t worry. I’ve been doing this for about 6 months now and managed about 2/3 of this and 1/2 the main one today, so I wouldn’t say it was especially easy. There are certain clues that as a middle aged man I neither know nor care to know e.g. 1 across. I’m sure if there were more clues about sports people from the 80s and 90s then I would do a lot better.
9:50 (death of Hywel Dda)
Only a few of the across clues yielded at first pass, but nearly all the down clues went straight in.
COYOTE was my LOI.
Thanks Mike and Joker
Although 7:38 was fast for me, this didn’t feel like an easy write-in. Lots of clues were cleverly constructed. Loi COYOTE was an example – like Kevin above, I was trying to fit something around TE.
Finished and enjoyed. Mostly pretty quick on bottom half but then a little slower on top inc IMPROMPTU, PRIMACY, PANDER (ditto NHO meaning Pimp but guessed), and PDM with CABINETMAKER.
Liked INCH, DRESSING DOWN, COYOTE, OAK and CHIC KEN.
Fairly straight forward parsing today, as in Ikea clue INTESTATE.
Thanks vm, Mike.
I enjoyed this so thanks . Spoiled a little by ‘pander’. If regular bloggers are saying NHO it shows something is wrong in my opinion!
5.08. COD to SANGRIA as that is what Luis Garcia drinks.
Finished it after struggling more than an hour; LOI CABINETMAKER. Two CNPs in the downs, so thank you, Mike; agree with others, NHO this meaning of PANDER, and cannot equate AGOny with struggle. Forgive my nit-picking (1a): you don’t have to squirm with whom’s – it’s simply “whose output”. Haven’t worn a dressing-gown since about 1980!
12.58 Thanks to Joker for a fun and fair QC (without the feeling of slow inadequacy many ‘Quickie’ setters have managed to leave me with in recent weeks and months). Also to Mike for a focussed blog and for parsing AGO properly for me (slaps head).
I knew PANDER as meaning indulge but dredged up the distasteful meaning from somewhere.
I thought this was surprisingly straightforward for a Joker QC, bar a couple of hesitations over the suspiciously sounding Improptu Pander. Loi Coyote didn’t exactly jump off the page either – I was another looking for a shy (in the sense of throw) word, around TE. CoD to what must be a previously unseen chestnut, Newness.
At 19mins, a sub-20 for Joker is a rare event for me these days, so perhaps our new Editor has had a quiet word. Time(s) will (literally) tell. Invariant
From INCH to COYOTE in 6:18. Another who didn’t know that definition of PANDER. Thanks Joker and Mike.
21:03 to complete the puzzle. Fairly straightforward, apart from PANDER – NHO this meaning, but guessed.
09:17, first decent time of the year.
LOI VODKA (Oh, that kind of spririt)
Liked DRESSING GOWN, and COD to the &lit DRAIN. Similarly bemused by PIMP.
For “British want jet” I had B+ITCH, but don’t think there is a jet named this.
Another good puzzle from The Joker who always seems to ensure that I use up my full targeted time allowance. Today I was a few seconds over at 10.07, but this was because I had the sense to go back to the unparsed 2dn to find out why PRIMARY didn’t work. The extra time sacrificed was worth it as PRIMACY was soon obvious.
Primary here for a bit too
13:02 for the solve! Held up for 5mins by the BLACK / CABINETMAKER pairing. Somehow Joker often manages to have a long clue where the checkers leave you scrambling around. Eventually managed to get to the -MAKER part by thinking about how Keir’s father was a toolmaker. With Starmer having been a barrister I assume that was the intended surface allusion. Once -maker went in, more scrambling to fill -A-I-E-. Like LindsayO wouldn’t think of case as a cabinet and with the clue have “Who’ll make” wouldn’t have expected to find it ending -maker but I’m just quibbling because I was held up! Decent QC though.
13 minutes today -so about my average.
LOI CABINETMAKER -took a long time to see what was going on there.
Held up by COYOTE and also IMPROMPTU, not the first musical piece I thought of; in fact I did not know this definition.
Overall a nicely pitched QC.
David
Finished correctly in 45 minutes. Despite what others say, I thought this was quite tough.
I did not like 4 down ‘pander’ for ‘pimp’. I have never heard of this obscure meaning. Everyone knows that pander refers to the giant black and white bears from China which just sit there eating endless supplies of bamboo sprouts. I am surprised that no-one else has pointed this out.
Re 16 across “Dressing Down” , when I was working in an office this is what people used to do on Fridays i.e. wearing jeans, t shirts rather than 3 piece suits or (in the case of females) designer dresses. For this privilege one was suppose to donate several pounds to charity. Strange days.
Yes, it wasn’t that easy, so the newer solvers above should not be dispirited. I do like Joker puzzles, though.
I think you’ll find the bear is a Panda.
Thanks Mike!
(Zak – keeps showing me logged out for some reason 🤔)
Yes. Panda/Pander was a joke.
Please read my later comment about Pandarus (or PandarUS).
I think you’ll find that that’s Gordon’s unique brand of humour!
🐼 😂
Ditto 🤣
6:52
No dramas.
Thanks, MH.
Every morning I don my dressing-gown in order to make tea for my best beloved, thus avoiding a DRESSING-DOWN. Despite this I needed all checkers for that and for CABINET-MAKER. Otherwise they went in fast enough, but my fingers were in terrible typing form and multiple corrections were needed. I more than half-expected a DPS but joy, all green in 07:44 for 1.3K and a Decent Day.
Really surprised by the number of people who don’t know Pandarus given he’s in both Chaucer AND Shakespeare, but I guess it’s all part of the slow death of high culture.
Many thanks Mike and Joker.
Was PandarUS an American pimp ?
😀
🙂
Never read Troilus & Cressida, and although I have a copy of Chaucer, I’ve never gotten around to reading it – so many books, so little time…
Never read Chaucer’s T&C. I gave up on Shakespeare’s–found it tedious–one of only 3 or 4 of his plays I haven’t read.
‘The verb form evolved in the early seventeenth century from a previous definition of “pimp”, and that was borrowed around 1450 from Pandero, the name of a character who set his cousin up with a Trojan prince in a twelfth-century poem by Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio. Boccaccio was further inspired by Pandaros, a character in Homer’s Iliad who had nothing to do with prostitution whatsoever.’
Am really surprised people are apparently not familiar with Boccaccio.
It’s very well-known in general terms that Boccaccio was a main source for both Chaucer and Shakespeare (especially The Decameron), although I suspect that very few English people have actually read Boccaccio!
Read him? I suspect that very few English people have even heard of him 🤣
I was kinda joking/teasing. And also agree with CurryO below.
I am familiar with the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio whose best known piece is the Decameron – a hundred stories about 10 people. I believe that it was written in 1375. I am also drawn to other
illustrious Italian writers such as Niccolo Machiavelli (who wrote Il Principe) and Giacomo Casanova.
I think that might be a tad harsh on people unfamiliar with Pandarus from Shakespeare and Chaucer. Shakespeare’s T and C is one of the least staged and least well-known of his works and Chaucer’s poem similarly is probably known to a tiny fraction of those aware of The Canterbury Tales. I think a fairly well -read person could know a dozen or so of Shakespeare’s works and be familiar with several of Chaucer’s tales and pilgrims without having dipped into either’s T and C. I had to study Chaucer’s poem and then only read the Shakespeare version out of curiosity to see how it compared to the older work.
Troilus (and indeed Pandar/pander) is a common reference point for Bill though … Twelfth Night (“I would play Lord Pandarus of Phrygia, sir, to bring a Cressida to this Troilus”), Much Ado (“Troilus the first employer of panders”), Cymbeline (“thou art the pandar to her dishonour”), Merry Wives (“Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become, And by my side wear steel?”), Henry V (“he that will not follow Bourbon now, Let him go hence, and with his cap in hand, Like a base pander, hold the chamber-door Whilst by a slave, no gentler than my dog, His fairest daughter is contaminated.”) and so on and so on.
You really don’t have to have seen or read T&C!
Yes, good point- I didn’t realize pander appears so often in other plays
Snap re the time but not because of my terrible typing!
GK or obscurity? I am quite often surprised when people they’d never heard of something that is known to me, but it’s not really fair. I’d say my GK is fairly good and I’m interested in art, literature and music in particular (no problem with 1a, which was my FOI) but science, sport and maths are my bêtes noires.
I obviously didn’t study the right Shakespeare plays at school and haven’t read any Chaucer except the Peter Ackroyd version! But high culture (and ninja turtling) won’t die while there are still sites like this around.
Geography is my Kryptonite … if an African country isn’t Mali, I’m doomed 🙂
There are always new places TO GO to!
Hee hee.
I’m surprised too. It’s been on the telly recently. In the new series of Wolf Hall, Cromwell says to Thomas Howard, the uncle of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard:
“If you want power, why don’t you get it like a man instead of pandering your fucking nieces?”
I struggled with this. Not sure why in retrospect. Another one who had never heard of pander = pimp.
COD cabinetmaker
Thanks to joker and Mike
18 minutes for me today with several of those spent on the 6dn/10ac crossing. Count me as another who didn’t know that meaning of pander.
FOI – 1ac IMPROMPTU
LOI – 10ac CABINETMAKER
CODs – 8ac CHICKEN and 14dn NEWNESS
thanks to Joker and Mike
Slow to start but it suddenly flowed and all done in 18. CABINETMAKER and DRESSING DOWN were immensely helpful in providing lots of crossers: only holdups were the piano piece ending in a U and the pesky COYOTE. COD to the novelty of seven points – great clue! Thanks setter and blogger.
Difficult to get started, but progressed steadily once I had …. until my last few, that is. IMPROMPTU, INCH and PANDER in the NW corner all provided stiff opposition and contributed to this being a tricky challenge in the end.
My favourite clue, for its relative novelty, was NEWNESS.
Many thanks to Mike and Joker.
Just googled and found ‘What’s the difference between pimping and pandering under Californian Law’.
Astonishing!
I enjoyed this! I got CHICKEN from scanning the clue but how does it relate to yellow? (Aside from yellow coloured chicken, but that’s tenuous)
Thanks for the great puzzle and ever helpful blog.
If you’re chicken, you’re a scaredy-cat, or yellow.
Think cowardly
Ah, thank you both!
PANDER and IMPROMPTU no problem for me but have big gaps in my GK with regard to science, sport and modern pop culture. This affects not only cryptic puzzles, but also the Monday GK crossword which I do finish occasionally but not as often as I’d like. Enjoyed today’s QC. CODs CABINETMAKER and DRESSING-DOWN. Thanks Joker and Mike for informative blog.
It was a bit of an unstructured solve, as I dotted around the grid somewhat, but all done and dusted in 9:44 today.
I liked CHICKEN – it made me smile. I hadn’t heard of Mompou but guessed he must be a composer for the surface to work. Also didn’t know that meaning of PANDER and didn’t much like it either. I feel it’s still quite a negative word – to me it implies indulging or giving in to someone because it’s the easier option. Mind you, the current meaning of to pimp as in to do up flashily is not one I like either.
I’ve got three dressing gowns for different times of the year – indoor use only! As for pyjamas or slippers in the supermarket, that’s definitely beyond the pale 🤣
FOI Impromptu LOI Undamaged COD Cabinetmaker
Thanks Joker and Mike
Very impressed with the seasonal dressing gown wardrobe!
The warm fleecy one is certainly worth having at the moment 😰 😅
9:29. It always feels good to be under 10 minutes. I particularly liked CHIC KEN.
I don’t wear a dressing gown any more; I prefer to be idle and lethargic in a big old sweatshirt over my PJs
A breezeblock solve. Super fast and then held up at the end with my final two – CABINET MAKER and BLACK.
FOI INCH
LOI BLACK
COD DRESSING DOWN (I do love my dressing gown)
7:44
12 mins…
Definitely on the easier side from Joker, but an enjoyable puzzle nonetheless with some great clues. Had a good chuckle at 10ac “Cabinetmaker” and 8ac “Chicken”. Unfortunately in the UK, you see people going to the shops in their dressing gowns, so it’s probably got even worse. With regards to 4dn “Pander”, I tend to associate it with the expression “stop pandering to him/her” in relation to someone who is possibly obsequious to another.
FOI – 6ac “Bus”
LOI – 2dn “Primacy”
COD – 14dn “Newness”
Thanks as usual!
I struggled a bit with this one but did eventually finish. Held up at the end by BLACK/CABINETMAKER and COYOTE (latter for same reasons as others). I’d NHO PANDER in that sense but the wordplay was very straightforward. I’ve no issues learning a new word or two (even if meanings are a bit unpalatable), in fact that’s part of the joy of crosswords. Interesting hearing relevant discussions about NHO Pandarus too. Sadly, my interests have lain elsewhere! Strangely slow to see VODKA. Nice QC but for me missed a bit of humour along the way. Many thanks for the blog.
DNF
Fairly easy, mostly done in 15, but failed to see the correct meaning of jet and failed on BLACK.
After two DNFs in a row (though with relatively fast solves on the same days’ 15x 15s) we’re pleased to report that normal service has been resumed. PANDER went in quickly from the wordplay without knowing that particular meaning – I assumed it was vaguely related to a ‘pimp my ride’ sense. We were slow to finish off at the end with CABINET MAKER and BLACK but otherwise found it relatively straightforward despite the random names. All done in 12:58. Thanks Mike and Joker.
P. S. my problem with the non-persistently name and email when commenting is definitely not fixed.
12a Coyote. I know they are canines, and look very doglike, but I was uneasy about them being dogs per se. Shrugged and moved on. I suppose I accept a lion as a cat so why not?
20a Imagery. Lovely wordplay. COD.
16a Dressing gown. Always wear one until I have finished abluting as I can’t find my jim jams and don’t want to frighten the horses/guests. I now know why a US hotel looked strangely at me when I asked to borrow one. Eventually they gave me a bathrobe (complimentary).
4d Pander. I am going to try NOT to use this word having read all the defs in Wiktionary, at least when I’m in US.
11d Intestate. Took an age, then a PDM. Easy if you read the clue correctly, but I didn’t.
DNF in 20 minutes. All done in ten except for UNDAMAGED and CABINETMAKER. I parsed the clues correctly but just couldn’t see the answers. Thanks Mike and Joker.
16:01 here. Add me to the crowds who learned new meanings for “imprompu” and “pander” today. I was also held up by having “blast” instead of “black” for a while, but at least I had the wit to use the pencil tool for that one.
Thanks to Joker and Mike.
Lovely puzzle from start to finish.
For me a dressing gown is part of the daily attire. I thought that rather than abandon it the Americans renamed it a bath robe.
Thanks Joker and Mike.
6.05
Slow start but with a few checkers they came steadily.
NEWNESS LOI and unparsed but had to be
Nice puzzle; nice blog; interesting comments.
Took this one slowly and carefully, as I’d made a one letter error on the 15×15 earlier. Excellent puzzle, with a good variety of clue types, nice surfaces too.
Thanks Mike and thanks setter.