Times Quick Cryptic 1786 by Juno

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

A quick start but then things slowed down. My final gaps were the two crossers – at 6dn/12ac and 16dn/18ac where there were some unfamiliar terms. Finally completed just shy of 12 minutes – so, for me at least, somewhat sticky. 13ac won the COD competition.

ACROSS

1. When speaking, leaves puddings (8)
DESSERTS – homophone (when speaking) of leaves – deserts.
5. Vagrant finally failing to find public transport (4)
TRAM – vagrant (TRAM)p – finally failing.
9. Transport ruminants, about 54 (7)
DELIVER – ruminants (DEER) about 54 (LIV – roman numerals).
10. Poet and old priest to back (5)
ELIOT – old priest (ELI), to backwards (OT).
11. Beer barrel a German holds (5)
LAGER – held inside barre(L A GER)man.
12. Bog plant Rod tore in a frenzy (7)
REDROOT – anagram (in a frenzy) of ROD TORE. Redroot has woolly yellow flowers and roots that yield a red dye – now we know. I needed all the checkers to fit the pieces together.
13. Go off with a tank and yellow digger (9)
ROTAVATOR – go off (ROT) with a tank (A VAT) and yellow (OR – in heraldry its metal gold which is yellow-ish).
18. Closed group, as requested (2,5)
TO ORDER – took a while to see that closed = (TO – as in a door), group (ORDER).
20. Note lass is like a Queen!
REGAL – note – do, (RE), mi, girl (GAL). Famous in the Sound of Music where Maria used a song to teach the solfege (or solfeggio – the teaching of the essentials of music theory) of the major musical scale to the Von Trapp children. We crosswordland learn.
21. Labour candidate finally producing fine material (5)
TOILE – labour (TOIL), candidat(E).
22. Hated vicar I escorted (7)
REVILED – vicar (REV), I (I), escorted (LED).
23. Dull hosts run trading centre (4)
MART – dull (MAT – variant spelling of matt apparently) hosts run (R).
24. Emphasised fantastic des res on street (8)
STRESSED – anagram (fantastic) of DES RES on (after) street (ST).

DOWN

1. Detective Inspector had led corrupt swindle (6)
DIDDLE – Detective Inspector had (DI’D), anagram (corrupt) of LED.
2. Stage in endlessly severe horse race (2,5)
ST LEGER – stage (LEG) in endlessly severe (STER)n.
3. Young fish always crossing lake (5)
ELVER – always (EVER) crossing lake (L).
4. Sailor‘s dark waterproof coat (3)
TAR – double definition.
6. At first, rent handled in old money (5)
RHINO – (R)ent (H)andled, in (IN), old (O). Collins (reliably, I’m sure) informs me that rhino is slang for money.
7. Drastically alter letter from Greek gallery (6)
MUTATE – letter from Greek (MU), gallery – our favourite (TATE).
8. Again correct poor Dieter (2-4)
RE-EDIT – anagram (poor) of DIETER.
12. Right to declare one’s a partygoer (5)
RAVER – right (R), declare (AVER).
14. On reflection it failed to get straightened (6)
TIDIED – on reflection it (TI), failed (DIED).
15. Entertains Rex, say, with beers (7)
REGALES – Rex (R), say (EG), beers (ALES).
16. I’m pursuing figure immediately (6)
STATIM – I’m (IM) pursuing (after) figure (STAT – as in statistic). Statim means immediately/straight away. This crossword has made me realise, once again, how much I don’t know!
17. Good length bindweed regularly and effortless moved (6)
GLIDED – good (G), length (L), b(I)n(D)w(E)e(D).
19. Willow tree somehow rose around one (5)
OSIER – anagram (somehow) of ROSE around one (I).
20.Regret penning English verse for show (5)
REVEU REVUE – regret (RUE) penning (holding) English and verse (E V).
22. Snitch irate to be missing tips (3)
RAT – missing the tips off i(RAT)e.

92 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1786 by Juno”

  1. Found this quite difficult, only because ST LEGER, STATIM, ROTAVATOR were unknown to me, so I had to hope that I had the right idea with the wordplay.
  2. There’s a fabulous Nina going on here. Don’t read the reply I’ve posted below if you want to look for it yourself

    1. In the Across answers:

      DESSERTS at 1ac is reversed to give STRESSED at 24ac

      Similarly

      TRAM = MART
      DELIVER = REVILED
      ELIOT = TOILE
      LAGER = REGAL
      REDROOT = TO ORDER
      and bang in the centre of the grid
      ROTAVATOR is a palindrome.

      In the Downs we have TAR = RAT

      If there’s more I haven’t spotted it, but what more could one hope for? Congrats to Juno for one of the best Nina’s I can remember.

      10 minutes to solve, BTW.

      Edited at 2021-01-12 05:49 am (UTC)

      1. It also looks like the odd letters for Down answers in the top half are the same (but reversed) in the Down answers in the bottom half.
        DiDdLe gLiDeD
        ElVeR. ReVuE
        StLeGeR. ReGaLeS
        RhInO. OsIeR
        MuTaTe. sTaTiM
        1. Yes, and also rEeDiT.TiDiEd and TaR.RaT and RaVeR. I noticed that, but wasn’t it inevitable given that they are the checked letters of the words forming the pattern of the Nina as described above? I think it had to be, but if not, then even further congrats are due to Juno. Thanks for pointing it out.

          Edited at 2021-01-12 07:48 am (UTC)

      2. Brilliant work indeed, and pretty good work to spot it too! Thanks for pointing it out – most enjoyable.
      3. The crossword is also most unusual in using as few as 14 letters of the alphabet. Unless I am mistaken, there is no B, C, F, H, J, K, P, Q, W, X, Y or Z. I presume there isn’t a word for the opposite of a pangram (and one couldn’t have a puzzle with none of the letters!) but I think to have as few as 14 is impressive. I wonder if there has ever been a puzzle with less.

        Cedric

      4. Superb Nina! And if the answer to 12dn had been REVER it would be a perfect palindrome top-to-bottom : TAR-REVER-RAT.
    2. Please note dvynys’s post a long way below – on page 2. I copy it here for your interest:

      12.1.21
      I’ve read a lot of the comments but apologies if I’m repeating – I had to write out today’s date and the timing of the Nina became obvious

      Curiouser and curiouser (or more brilliant) is Juno.

  3. That’s a cracking nina that passed me by (thanks Jackkt). I started with only three of the acrosses and it took me six minutes to get my first ten answers, finally finishing in 20m. The bright spot was writing in TOILE which I’d never heard of the last time it came up a few weeks (months?) ago. I’ll have to hope something similar happens with STATIM, REDROOT and RHINO (for money, I have heard of the animal). Tricky grid too with the four corners being kept pretty separate. The biggest self inflicted wound was not seeing ‘to’ for ‘closed’ and bunging in IN ORDER thinking of “in crowds”, which made STATIM even harder.
  4. One day I’ll learn that if I can’t parse an answer I really should check my spelling. Today it was rotIvator that caused my downfall. It was particularly frustrating as I had been feeling pleased with myself that I’d managed to work out some tricky clues/vocabulary along the way.
    Well done for spotting the nina Jack, and congrats to Juno for a very clever theme.
    Thanks to Chris for the blog.

    Edited at 2021-01-12 08:28 am (UTC)

  5. NHO: REDROOT, OSIER, TOILE, ELVER or STATIM. I realise that botany is my biggest failing in this game, I seem to be repeatedly typing in an unlikely series of letter into Wikipedia and having a shrub pop up.

    MART seemed tough to me as MATTE is my usual spelling for dull, and MART is an obscure word.

    I guess when the setter decides to go for such a full Nina, obscure vocab is the likely result.

    1. Really? Maybe less common these days but there used to be shops with Mart in their title on nearly every High Street and in covered markets.
    2. I agree with you about the spelling of MAT being a little obscure, but MART surely is an everyday word.
      1. Those of us old enough may well remember the pre internet version of eBay – Exchange & Mart !
  6. Wonderful Nina, which I didn’t spot until right at the end (despite a lightbulb going off when ROTAVATOR went in). I wonder if that will help some quicker times today, if anyone does notice it a bit earlier?
  7. Ridiculously difficult for a ‘quick’ cryptic. Could hardly start this one.

    Rhino = ‘money’ ? Not in my universe.
    Osier ?
    Statim ?
    Reveu ?

    23 Across ‘MAT’ can mean the same as ‘MATT’ ? Rubbish. In your crazy world a word can mean anything the setter wants it to mean.

    I really will stop wasting my time on these so called ‘Quick Cryptics’ after this.

      1. Ha ha! Well said! If you don’t like this sort of thing no one’s forcing you to do it! As an incredibly slow and only occasional finisher I used every aid and this blog (thanks Chrisw) for an approx 1 hr. completion. Missed the Nina, DNK several words but, as ever, found it enjoyable. And educational.
    2. REVEU?

      Dud you actually attempt the puzzle or did you just read the blogger’s typo for REVUE 😉

      FGBP

  8. 21 minutes, one over my target, but at 15 I had just two to go STATIM and the first word of TO ORDER, which I thought could have been ‘on’ or ‘in’. An alphabet trawl led to STATIM, which sounded Latin, then I saw ‘stat’. I also biffed LAGER as I missed the ‘hidden’, and needed several visits to Chambers to confirm REDROOT and a few others.
    There were some obscure definitions, but with the wonderful Nina that can be forgiven.
    Congratulations to Juno, and thanks to Chris and Jack.

    Brian

  9. I agree with Merlin – obscure vocab is the result of any attempt at a full Nina. I think Ninas are terribly clever but they tend to interfere with an otherwise good crossword. I wondered why, after a quick run through 3 quadrants, I came to a halt in the SW corner. All because the setter had to have obscure words (and the resulting tough and/or convoluted clues) to finish his grand design. This took the edge off an otherwise nice QC for me (and took me to a little over 20 mins). John M.
    Yes, I know I am out of step with most solvers but there it is.

    Edited at 2021-01-12 10:52 am (UTC)

    1. Not all solvers, I completely agree with you. I think Ninas generally spoil crosswords – I know it is nice for the setters to show off occasionally, but it is a shame there isn’t somewhere else they can do it! Intellectually I can see that you could have a Nina without spoiling the puzzle, but I have yet to see one. In this case I thought even ignoring the Nina, some of the clueing was poor e.g. 18a and 23a

      Edited at 2021-01-12 04:45 pm (UTC)

  10. But Wiktionary does not have an English language entry for 16d STATIM, only a Latin entry. It’s not a word I recognise at all. All the others are fine with me, I am somewhat familiar with all of them.
    18a TO ORDER however was too clever for me so DNF.
    Andyf
    2. But Wiktionary is not a source for Times Crossword puzzles. The principal ones are Collins and Lexico (Oxford).

      Here’s the Collins entry:

      statim
      in British English

      ADVERB
      immediately; right away

  11. Wowser! What a corker! I got there in the end but though I started off flying, my last couple were crawlers.

    I knew STATIM, as I used to teach Latin but I hesitated because I thought that 18 across had to be IN ORDER, with the IN bit representing “closed “. However, once MART and (the NHO) TOILE were in, the results were inevitable. It didn’t help that my first thought for 21 across was voile.

    So many clever things going on here – I am in awe.

    Thanks, Chris and 👏👏 Juno

  12. I started off so quickly I thought a PB might be possible. But having slowed to derive the unknown flower REDROOT and some others, it came down to my last two- 18a and 16d. I had IN ORDER which I changed to ON ORDER, both of which felt slightly off.
    I then decided to put all effort into 16d; had to end IM so what was Figure? I got there eventually with 18:15 on the clock, but all correct. COD to ROTAVATOR but massive applause for the nina.
    David
  13. Well at least I spotted the NINA, but as part of my Nina check after completion, so too late to help my time, which was close to 30 minutes. Very, very clever I thought, and must have demanded a lot of hard work from Juno, making my 30 minute solve pale by comparison. The most annoying bit for me was getting stuck on both TOILE and ELIOT which were linked in a clue that I blogged some time ago, and which caught me out then too.

    I have sympathy for those that find ninas cause forced answers and clues, but surely the elegance and subtlety of a nina as clever as this is worth some sacrifice. I applaud Juno!

  14. An example of why ninas are like marmite …
    … in that people either love them or loathe them. Yes they are clever – and today’s is surely one of the cleverest we have seen for a while – but they constrain the setter and can lead to some pretty obscure words. In which category I would certainly put 12A Redroot and 16D Statim (NHO either), and 6D Rhino as money I only knew because it’s come up before – does anyone use it outside crosswordland?

    In the end, a good work-out that took me 15 minutes, with only 5A Tram not parsed (I firmly thought that “vagrant finally” gave a T and then could not find a 3-letter word for “failing to find”), so I would say on the tough side. SW corner the last to fall, and I share the MER at mat = dull in 23A (not a spelling I’ve met outside this QC). I also wondered what the word Drastically was doing in the clue for 7D – it seems to add nothing.

    Many thanks to Chris for the blog- but I think you have a typo in your parsing for 20D as it says Reveu not Revue.

    Cedric

  15. Well I did find this rather tricky and relieved to know I’m not alone. I wish I’d spotted the Nina as it may have helped my SW corner. I went for “no other” for closed group, so hadn’t a hope of getting statim which I do recall from A level Latin many moons ago. DNK Redroot but thought it and Osier we’re fairly clued. Also DNK rotavator. Still many thanks to Juno for the extremely clever crossword and to Chris for explaining it all.

  16. Sorry, but I’m in the Oldblighter/Merlin camp: another good puzzle ruined by the constraints of an, admittedly clever, Nina. I must have spent as long in the SW corner as the other three put together. Setting aside mat/dull, Statim and Toile in a QC really is pushing it – especially if you didn’t spot the Nina in the first place. Invariant

    PS. Anyone in need of another crossword fix should take a look at the 15×15 today. It’s quite approachable… and no Latin.

    Edited at 2021-01-12 08:40 pm (UTC)

  17. I didn’t know STATIM or REDROOT, but the wordplay was helpful once ther crossers were in. Loved the clue for ROTAVATOR and the nina was brilliant! I didn’t spot it until Jack pointed it out as I don’t usually expect them in the QC, but it didn’t take long to see then. Great stuff. 8:44. Thanks Juno and Chris.
  18. FOI 1A: DESSERTS
    LOI 16D: STATIM

    NHO: REDROOT and STATIM so both went in with fingers crossed.

    Thank you, jackkt and Cedric – I haven’t read your detailed comments as I’m now off to look for NINA.

    Thank you, chrisw91 and Juno.

  19. NHO STATIM or NHO since Latin A level a very long time ago. Did not remember RHINO cd be money in Crosswordland. Guessed REDROOT. Failed to biff ROTATE – shd have got. Biffed MART as in Exchange & Mart but NHO Mart meaning Matt.

    On the other hand I enjoyed the NW and SE. FOI DESSERTS.

    This is an example of a crazy clever Nina spoiling the puzzle, imo. Oh dear, I see I have put the alternative spelling of ROTOVATOR so it is not a palindrome.

    Thanks vm, Chris. Is there still a typo in REVUE?

  20. I had a similar experience to our blogger Chris and only spotted the NINA once alerted to it by Jack. I agree with the comments that in constructing a NINA the result is a preponderance of obscure words. Fortunately the wordplay pointed me in the right direction with REDROOT, RHINO (for money) and OSIER but my LOI STATIM was very much a guess. I also biffed ST LEGER but parsed it post submission and dithered over whether the first A in ROTAVATOR was actually an I. All this took me just over target, 10:25.
  21. Strangely enough I started quite well, but soon became quite bogged down as I moved further down the grid. With the inclusion of St Leger and Rhino I thought it might be a toughie and when I eventually saw “OR” for yellow (in relation to gold) it definitely confirmed it for me.

    In the end, after 30 mins I only had 16dn “Statim” and 21ac “Toile” remaining, but they wouldn’t come. In addition, I had “In Order” for 18ac which didn’t help.

    Whilst I didn’t spot the Nina, I did notice a lot of “R’s” at the beginning and end of words – maybe this should have highlighted the palindromic nature in the middle of the grid.

    Not really sure what to think about this. I can appreciate that some people think it’s a marvellous piece of construction, and I did like a lot of the clues, but personally it’s left me a little cold.

    FOI – 1ac “Desserts”
    LOI – dnf
    COD – 13ac “Rotavator”

    Thanks as usual.

  22. 7:58.

    Obviously I failed to spot the NINA, though there was a similar one in one of the Guardian puzzles yesterday, which did actually help me solve one clue when I spotted it.

    Now all has been revealed, I say it was an absolutely spectacular effort from Juno, and fie to the naysayers, quibblers and ingrates. 😉

    STATIM went in on a wing and a prayer as my LOI, but otherwise all words that, although not exactly part of my daily discourse, are well known to me.

  23. I knew I was up against it when, after 6 minutes, I still hadn’t solved a single clue. Eventually, however, I started to make progress, but working my way around both the SW and NE corners was a tortuous process.

    As others have said, I had never heard of STATIM, REDROOT or OSIER, and have only encountered RHINO (meaning money) once before – here, in crosswordland.

    Did anyone spot there were 28 clues today? Is this a record?

    After that cerebral workout, I now need to go and rest my brain. Time for some lunch, I think!

    Thanks to chrisw91 and to Juno.

  24. Oh dear, another DNF. 16d STATIM – never heard of. 23a MAT = dull? never seen it.
    RHINO? Guessed it, but it isn’t all first letters: IN is 2 letters! Guessed REDROOT – looked it up: it says woodland plant, not bog plant. Feeling grumpy. Thanks for pointing out the NINA – I would never have spotted it.
    2. It’s only the first letters of rent handled, then it’s in (IN) and old=O (not a first letter but an abbreviation – from Collins – used as an abbreviation for words beginning with o, such as ‘ old’ or ‘organization’.
  25. Struggled with this, with a vague feeling that something was going on as there were more than usual unusual words and clues. Eventually ran out of steam in the SW corner. Then I read the blog.
    Whilst I recognise that NINAs can make for a strained puzzle, I am in awe of this one. To have a palindrome that references rotating in the middle is just brilliant. I am pleased with what I did answer and content to doff my hat to the overall cleverness that left me short of the full set.
  26. Stunning nina which of course I completely failed to spot.
    Never heard of redroot but all the other slightly obscure words were known to me (statim eventually surfacing from somewhere deep in the subconscious). Tricky though, taking me to the limit of my target of 20 mins. Thanks to Chris for help with some parsings and to Juno for a clever puzzle.

    FOI – 5ac TRAM
    LOI – 16dn STATIM
    No COD as there was no stand out clue IMO.

  27. Struggled with this, with a vague feeling that something was going on as there were more than usual unusual words and clues. Eventually ran out of steam in the SW corner. Then I read the blog.
    Whilst I recognise that NINAs can make for a strained puzzle, I am in awe of this one. To have a palindrome that references rotating in the middle is just brilliant. I am pleased with what I did answer and content to doff my hat to the overall cleverness that left me short of the full set.
  28. Absolutely brilliant, I loved it. Hats off to Juno. Thank goodness for Jack, the Nina Ninja. He always spots them!

    STATIM well known in the law, anyway (not everyone’s cup of tea I admit). REDROOT less so …

    Anyway, for me the big news is that the blog and all comments are appearing in Comic Sans for the first time ever!! What on earth? It’s robbed you all of your dignity,

    FOI DESSERTS, LOI TIDIED, COD the Nina, time 11:48 for a Very Good Day.

    Many thanks Chris and Juno. Superb.

    Templar

    1. I can’t take your praise, templar, without owning up. I had absolutely no idea it was a Nina whilst solving, nor when I first read Chris’s blog. But I keep a spreadsheet of QC facts and figures and my solving times, and when I updated it this morning I noticed that Juno has set us only 13 puzzles over a period of 7 years of which the previous 4 had all been Ninas. The earlier ones may have been too, but nobody spotted it. Anyway, that was enough to send me back to today’s puzzle to seek treasure, and sure enough, I found it.
      1. You are too modest. Mrs Templar has just pointed out to me that today’s date is a palindrome – 12.1.21. So that explains it! (Sorry if this has already been mentioned.)
  29. Unusually, I managed to finish without resorting to aids. I usually reckon to know the shrubs and wildflowers, having been educated by my better half over the last few decades but redroot was new to me. Managed to work it out from the anagram and checkers before confirming. Osier wss no problem, being familiar, and also seems to be a crossword staple. Not sure I’ve come across ‘or’ for yellow before either.

    Like others, the SW was the hold up. Couldn’t see ‘to’ as closed and I must have come across statim in the dim distant past but it only came once everything else wss in place. Pity I didn’t spot the NINA as that would have helped enormously.

    Edited at 2021-01-12 02:31 pm (UTC)

  31. Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2021

    FOI: 24a STRESSED
    LOI: 20d REVUE

    Time to Complete: DNF

    I did not like this crossword at all. I got nowhere with it. A real tough one for me. Can’t think of anything else to say about it.

    Aids Used: TftT

    Total Answered: A very small number

    PS: What is a NINA that I see spoken of here?

    Edited at 2021-01-12 03:32 pm (UTC)

    1. I’m sure somebody else will answer in more depth, but basically a Nina is a hidden theme, named after a cartoonist (?) who used to hide the name of his daughter, Nina, in his pictures. As for the difficulty of this puzzle, I agree, it was one of the hardest I remember.
    3. This one was hard so don’t despair. It was hard because of some obscure vocabulary brought on by the Nina. It really is worth your while to look at jackkt’s post early today (on page one of comments) which explains it. Sometimes getting a completion or good time is good, sometimes it’s a great clue or two – but today it was this wonderful creation of kaleidoscope rotating words/letters – a different enjoyment but a good one.
  32. This was definitely as hard as some of the 15x15s I’ve tried. I gave up on the SW after about 65 minutes, but then managed to get TO ORDER I think which enabled me to get TIDIED and then tentatively put in STATIM and OSIER, neither of which I’ve ever heard of. Probably about 70 minutes or just over in total then, though I was far from confident that I had everything right. I partially spotted the Nina in that I saw that the top line was the reverse of the bottom, but I only saw all the other reversals when I was just about to come on here a few hours later. Hats off to Juno for creating such a puzzle. I agree that Ninas can result in a few obscure words, but as long as the wordplay is clear, that’s not necessarily a problem. My one slight criticism therefore, is that two of the obscure words, REDROOT and OSIER, were clued by anagrams in this case, making them pretty much impossible until you’ve got some checkers in place. Admittedly though, once all the checkers are in place, there wasn’t much else they could be. Couldn’t remember RHINO for money, but now I dredge my mind, maybe I have come across it before. I do think I’ve seen MAT for MATT, and TOILE has certainly come up, more than once I’d say, so I was surprised to read some of the regulars saying it was new to them. Anyway, thanks Chris and, of course, Juno. Keep those Ninas coming.
  33. I’ve read a lot of the comments but apologies if I’m repeating – I had to write out today’s date and the timing of the Nina became obvious

    6.41 for me. Didn’t twig till the stressed/desserts combo slapped me round the face

    Tricky but one of those where I knew the GK

    Good fun. Thanks all

    2. That’s brilliant! Never occurred to me. Thank you. If you haven’t then I’ll reply to jackkt who first spotted the nina.
  34. So pleased to have completed this one (in 20 minutes) – at times it seemed we were heading for a DNF. We hadn’t heard of some of the words but worked them out through Juno’s clever clues – excellent puzzle. As usual we didn’t spot the nina….one day perhaps.

    FOI: desserts
    LOI: toile
    COD: mutate

    Thanks for the blog Chris.

  35. ….because it’s what I call a “Look at me, aren’t I clever ?” puzzle. Unknown word clued as an anagram (REDROOT), brand name with two possible spellings (ROTAVATOR/ROTOVATOR), any number of loose clues (eg DIDDLE), and a Latin word I’ve never seen used in English (STATIM).

    The rest of you can applaud – I’m not bothering to submit it, even though I was inside 5 minutes.

    1. I think STATIM might be one of those words you are more likely to see in English, not Latin, as indicated below.
      I’m not sure cluing REDROOT as an anagram is “unfair”, in fact it’s possibly the fairest way of doing it given the constituents are recognisable.
      The beauty of cryptic clues is you can clue things like ROTAVATOR and not worry about the alternative spellings.

      FGBP

  36. An amazing Nina but it was certainly difficult. Doesn’t Juno have a reputation for setting hard QCs? I did the SE corner then the NW but had problems with the rest. DNK rhino, redroot or mat for matt. I had a feeling that Statim meant ‘immediately’ and I put it in even though it wasn’t in my Chambers and when I remembered willow could be osier, I cracked the SW except for 24a. I couldn’t do 6d, 7d (should have got that) or 12a so DNF although I generally enjoyed it.
    FOI tramp COD rotavator (or deliver) Well done Juno and thank you Chris for explaining the clues I biffed.
    Blue Stocking
  38. Am I the only one to biff REDROOT and then see Wiki tell me it grows in woods not a bog.

    Edited at 2021-01-12 07:30 pm (UTC)

    1. According to Collins:

      1. a bog plant, Lachnanthes tinctoria, of E North America, having woolly yellow flowers and roots that yield a red dye: family Haemodoraceae
      2. another name for pigweed (sense 1)

  39. Shocked to have done so which suddenly helped with so many answers…
    But it was still very hard with some dodgy definitions as others have said.
    Appreciated the craft but overall didn’t feel satisfied.
    I was surprised to see that so few of everyone actually saw the Nina – it just goes to show how good you are not to have to have noticed! I wouldn’t have completed without that knowledge and needed an aid to unblock the last four – Mutate, Statim, Eliot and Toile.
    Thanks all
    John George
  40. Simply astonishing! What a beautiful puzzle. I say that in hindsight of course. I am yet to spot a NINA before coming here and being shown. Nevertheless, brilliant work by Juno.
    1. I spotted the Nina right at the end, as I was putting in ROTAVATOR. I studied Latin for four years but do not remember STATIM from that time. I discovered it when watching “House”; the eponymous grumpy doctor would require things to be done “Stat!” A little investigation revealed that this was an abbreviation of “statim” which of course meant “immediately “.
  43. Well, I struggled and chewed a lot on this one.
    No problem with STATIM. It is very common medical use (STAT – ie take straight away as opposed to OD, BD, TDS (Once/Twice/Three times per day), AC/PC before/after food etc. NHO RHINO as money, did not spot the NINA but have gone back to admire its elegant construction.
    Too many clues were biffed and half parsed. Thanks to Joker et al for a brain storm and the insightful explanation.
  44. Ridiculously difficult with obscure words all down to the setter deciding to do a Nina. I just wish they wouldn’t do it. Hate Ninas with a passion. Ruined what could have been a good crossword
    1. Suggest you chill and contemplate the difficulty of setting (and beauty of) such a kaleidoscope of mirror letters within a grid. An easy QC fix can’t be everything, surely?
    2. I’ve seen a few QCs with more obscurity than this one and which have not had anything else going on in them.
      But I’m not sure that is saying a lot: “obscurity” is very subjective.
      STATIM is the only word here that caused a raised eyebrow.

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