Times Quick Cryptic 1881 by Orpheus

Author   ChrisPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

If Orpheus was on AM then I was on DAB. A rare dnf for me as I couldn’t solve the long 4dn without all the checkers and I felt I had no chance of 9ac (I hadn’t heard of either of the definitions) and I couldn’t get the clever 23ac without the first letter. So somewhat dissatisfying but that’s down to me. If I’d approached this with the patience I reserve for the 15x15s then maybe I could have done better. I approach the QC more as a romp so was probably too impatient. Please let me know how you got on as I can then judge the difficulty of the puzzle or (highly likely) my sluggishness.

I’ve enjoyed the clever and concise clueing but I’m not as keen on the two names which cropped up in the parsing – although I think Mr. S may enjoy the references.

Definitions are underlined.

Across
1 Twilight start to drive by Welsh river (4)
DUSK – (D)rive by Welsh river (USK).
3 Enchanting girl entering Italian island from east (8)
ADORABLE – a random girl (DORA) inside Italian island – Elba – from the east (ABLE).
9 Title of head of household once — Benny, possibly? (7)
GOODMAN – double definition. The first is archaic for husband/master of household. The second was a US jazz clarinetist and band leader.
10 Modest abode originally, and not a landed estate (5)
MANOR – (M)odest, (A)bode, and not (NOR).
11 Old US president protected by British motorcyclist (5)
BIKER – old US president (IKE) surrounded by British (BR).
12 Line on map observed at first in island pub (6)
ISOBAR – (O)bserved inside island (IS) and pub (BAR).
14 Duplicitous lookalike distributing cards at table (6-7)
DOUBLE-DEALING – lookalike (DOUBLE), distributing cards at table (DEALING).
17 Tree planted in April in Denmark (6)
LINDEN – inside Apri(L IN DEN)mark.
19 Relax about initiation of important exam (5)
RESIT – relax (REST) about (I)mportant.
22 Bouquet given by a painter accepting high honour (5)
AROMA – a (A), painter (RA) including high honour (OM).
23 Bizarre situation of constable doing desk job (7)
OFFBEAT – a constable doing a desk job would be off the beat. I quite liked that one.
24 Castigate young creature breaking seat (8)
LAMBASTE – young creature (LAMB), anagram (breaking) of SEAT.
25 Nail leader of rowdies in criminal environment (4)
BRAD – (R)owdies inside (in the environment of)  criminal (BAD).
Down
1 Factotum one sort of boxer would have (8)
DOGSBODY – one sort of boxer is a dog so would have a (DOG’S BODY).
2 Loose garment some initially laugh at (5)
SMOCK – (S)ome, laugh at (MOCK).
4 New inn dominated by duke’s small terrier (6,7)
DANDIE DINMONT – anagram (new) of INN DOMINATED by (beside/next to/underneath) duke (D). Collins has a trend of word usage graph which shows this dog first being talked about in about 1800, never used very much, and pretty well petering out in recent times. I suppose this puzzle will increase it’s ‘hits’.
5 Shakespearean hero with capital O (5)
ROMEO – capital (ROME), O (O). Concise and clever.
6 Asian girl visiting W African state endlessly (7)
BENGALI – girl (GAL) inside W African state endlessly (BENI)n.
7 Peer demanding attention last of all (4)
EARL – attention (EAR – as in ‘lend me your’), al(L). ‘Demanding’ seems to be a surface filler.
8 American chap pinches gold, having no principles (6)
AMORAL – American (AM), random chap (AL).
13 Uneasy, having stirred up trouble (8)
AGITATED – double definition.
15 College class’s prescribed clothing (7)
UNIFORM – college (UNI), class (FORM).
16 Daughter interrupting a break at sea? (6)
ADRIFT – daughter (D) inside a (A) and break (RIFT). Another clever clue.
18 Theatrical piece by doctor, an arts graduate (5)
DRAMA – doctor (DR), an arts graduate (A MA).
20 Scorn prophet welcoming knight on board (5)
SNEER – prophet (SEER) welcoming on board knight on a chess board (N).
21 Post a person of masculine gender talked of (4)
MAIL – homophone (talked of) of ‘of masculine gender’ – male. Don’t often get 3 ‘of”s lined up in a sentence.

100 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic 1881 by Orpheus”

  1. Again

    Either the 15x15s are getting easier or the 13x13s are getting harder; either way I feel they need to look at the scoring systems…I’m averaging 810 on one and 770 on the other

    I have googled “dandie dinmont” and can confirm they look ridiculous

  2. RESIT & ADRIFT were a long time coming. Biffed DANDIE DINMONT (agree with Lou Weed), trusting that the anagrist was all there. Referring to Benny GOODMAN (the King of Swing) as ‘a US jazz clarinetist’ is rather like referring to Louis Armstrong as ‘a US jazz trumpeter’. (He also played classical music, soloing with various symphony orchestras.) Here’s one of his most famous numbers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsVJuulCmAE
    7:22.
  3. Another DNF after 30 minutes, with most of the SE corner blank, missing ADRIFT, BRAD, OFFBEAT and SNEER. I really should have got ‘sneer’ but I was looking for a named prophet and the only one I knew was Eli — perhaps if I’d got it it would have unlocked the others. For some reason I knew DANDIE DINMONT as a dog named after a Sir Walter Scott character, it went in straight away and really helped.
    Thanks to Chris for the blog and to Orpheus for the workout.

    Brian P

    Edited at 2021-05-25 03:38 am (UTC)

    2. Eli, in the Bible, was a priest, but not, to my knowledge, a prophet, though he is known for raising the young Samuel, whom his parents dedicated to God. Maybe you were thinking of Elijah?
      Gill D
  4. Almost 10 minutes
    Again

    Either the 15x15s are getting easier or the 13x13s are getting harder; either way I feel they need to look at the scoring systems…I’m averaging 810 on one and 770 on the other

    I have googled “dandie dinmont” and can confirm they look ridiculous

  5. I also struggled with this and needed 14 minutes to complete it, missing my ‘red’ zone by one minute (Green is up to 10).

    The wretched hound took up most of my time as I vaguely knew what I was looking for but took a while to untangle it from the anagrist.

    I was also delayed over ‘Benny’. I thought of GOODMAN almost immediately but was unware of its other meaning.

    1. One of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s better-known stories–and almost definitely my source for the word–is ‘Young Goodman Brown’, about a young man in Puritan Massachusetts.
  6. A big DNF from me (the crossword club says 79% complete!). Some things I don’t think I would ever have got — BRAD, DANDIE DINMONT and GOODMAN (stalled after Hill and off Crossroads for all the Benny’s I knew) — but I also made it hard for myself for thinking our girl as 3a was Mena so had amenable for ADORABLE but even so no excuse for not getting ROMEO from the clue ‘Shakespearean hero’ but once the N went it I thought it was just my ignorance. Also failed to separate the parts of the clue properly for SMOCK. ADRIFT, OFFBEAT, SNEER and RESIT also beat me. Tough start to the week!

    Edited at 2021-05-25 06:33 am (UTC)

  7. Way too difficult for me. Got nowhere with this one. Had to double check that I hadn’t started the 15 x 15 in error.
  8. 9 missing after 25 minutes. I knocked off the 15×15 yesterday more easily than this QC today.

    I didn’t even have 4d marked as an anagram, so miles off there. NHO BRAD, so that led to a blank SE corner. I had MALE not MAIL, so that eliminated LAMBAST. NHO GOODMAN, in either context.

    Total disaster, really.

    COD DOGSBODY, clever, and made me smile

  9. Hard today. I had to resort to an anagram aid for the young scottish sheepdog then double check it was an actual breed… 24 min with help. For those relatively new to this I would encorage the use of crossword solving aids before coming here for the answers. IMHO you get better quicker that way.
    Thanks as akways
    1. My favoured anagram solver — rearrangememt servant — hadn’t heard of Dandie Dinmont. That was the moment I knew I was truly beaten!
  10. We were going great guns until we hit the SE corner. NHO BRAD and entered ABROAD for 16D which made OFFBEAT impossible to get. However, after reading the other posts I’m reassured that we are in good company – this was indeed a toughie. Ho hum, off to the garden ….

    FOI: DUSK
    LOI: OFFBEAT (but a DNF after 20 minutes)
    COD: DOGSBODY

    Thanks to Orpheus and Chris

  11. Yikes, this is proving to be a tough week on the QCs. After a promising start with both 1s going straight in this turned into a bit of a slog.
    I vaguely knew the dog so once I had a few checkers it went in without too much of a hold up. Adorable took a while but my real issues were with the NHOs BRAD and GOODMAN (LOI), both of which required multiple alphabet trawls. Finished in 16.25 with my favourite being OFFBEAT.
    Thanks to Chris
  12. Difficult up to 10 minutes – BRAD (from wordplay – have heard of a bradawl, but not a brad), OFFBEAT (liked this when I finally got it), MAIL (duh) and LAMBASTE (never seen that spelling), BENGALI (I was too far east with the Asian, and thing of MALI, not BENIN), all took some winkling out. Then 5 minutes juggling the anagrist in a desultory fashion (on paper – again) to come up with DENDIE DANMONT, which was wrong. Can’t really have any complaints though, as GOODMAN for me was a write in, which others seem to have struggled with.

    15:14 but with an error. 2 tougher ones back to back.

    Well done & thanks to Orpheus, and thanks to chrisw91 for the blog.

  13. … as I had not heard of the dog at 4D. Not exactly an everyday term in the Statherby household, and needed a google-check to complete it.

    Not that the rest of the puzzle was much easier either. Guessed 25A Brad from the parsing but NHO the meaning nail, and hesitated for some time over the spelling of 24A Lambaste (does anyone else apart from me and the OED spell it Lambast?) Also took too long over 22A Aroma, as I had fixed in my mind “bouquet as a bunch of flowers” not “bouquet as in wine’s smell”. As for 9A Goodman, another NHO, but I put it in on the basis of Benny (who I had heard of) and Goodwife (also heard of), and the reasoning that if Goodwife existed then perhaps Goodman did once too.

    As others have already said, the week is off to a pretty challenging start! Many thanks to Chris for the blog
    Cedric

    2. I was confused at first when I wanted to put LAMBAST, as I always thought it was spelt without the E at the end. But my CED had both variants, and my spell checker, as I type this reply, has picked up LAMBAST and wants me to change it to LAMBASTE.
  14. After 5 minutes getting nowhere I checked to make sure I was doing the Quick Cryptic not the other one. Never heard of the terrier, and couldn’t stop thinking Benny Hill. Finally finished in 31 minutes after a lot ( and I mean a lot ) of guesswork. Couldn’t get on the wavelength. Still, it’s all experience and enjoyed it anyway. Thanks.
    1. The distraction of Benny Hill running around at quick speed put me off as well 😀
  15. DNF here too. Oh well, there’s another one tomorrow.

    Well played Orpheus, thanks Chris.

    Templar

    Edited at 2021-05-25 08:43 am (UTC)

  16. A really hard slog. Some nice clues and some serious head-scratchers. Most of the latter have been listed above. I knew BRAD but came to it late and I was strangely reluctant to put the final letter on LAMBASTE. SNEER took a while and the difference in difficulty between ROMEO and half of the rest was striking. Did anybody solve DANDIE DINMONT without looking up terriers? I’d be surprised — I’m not the greatest dog fancier but really!
    I have no hesitation admitting to a 24 min solve (technically a dnf because of the weird dog). Thanks to Chris for a good blog dealing nicely with an off-beat ’Curate’s egg’ from Orpheus. John M.
    1. Dinmont went in straight away — I think from a children’s book of dog breeds I had as a girl — but I had remembered it as Dandy, so was grateful for the anagram confirmation of the spelling. On the whole, I found this a relatively easy one, apart from BRAD, which was unfamiliar except as Bradawl. Must have been on the wavelength…
      Gill D
  17. I join the DNF club. I guessed GOODMAN but gave up with DANDIE DINMONT. Sorry Orpheus, I’m crying foul as I don’t see the terrier dog as either GK or obtainable from the wordplay.
    1. If you know the breed (GK), then once you have a couple of checkers and the anagrist it jumps out at you (or in this case me). There were other clues I wasn’t keen on (hate random names!), but I think this clue was fair.
  18. All correct today for a change; time 10:07.
    Knew Benny Goodman and the dog, but not how to spell it. I had to carefully review the anagrist to place the E.
    My problem was LOI BRAD which went in with fingers crossed.
    Surely once you’ve seen/heard the name DANDIE DINMONT you don’t forget it? But I don’t recall when I last saw one in the local park.
    I enjoyed this-but luckily I had the GK today.
    David

  19. I did enjoy this so thanks setter and blogger but I think the setters draw unnnecessary criticism by including manifestly obscure words and names. It’s bad enough when we have to go back to the mid twentieth century but today’s dog seemed to dredge the early 19th??
  20. Hadn’t heard of the nail (but I remembered the ridiculous looking dog- I’m sure their owners think they are wonderful). Yesterday’s cryptic was easier!
  21. Not looking a good week, although there is some comfort in knowing I wasn’t the only one who had a shocker with this.

    NHO of “Goodman”, “Dandie Donut” (or whatever it’s called) or “Brad”. Struggled with 23ac “Offbeat”, 3ac “Adorable” (couldn’t get Capri out of my head for the latter) and made an educated guess for 1dn “Dogsbody”.

    As someone mentioned above, I also lurched from Benny Hill to Benny from Crossroads.

    FOI — 17ac “Linden”
    LOI — dnf
    COD — 13dn “Agitated” — only because I was at the end of it…

    Thanks as usual!

    1. Brads (aka Sprigs) were used to hold a sheet of glass in place while applying the putty. A messy job, but one that quickly encouraged a more controlled batting technique…
      1. I first met brads in shoe repairs. They are used for securing heels, for example (in addition to adhesive).
  22. What can I say? A tough puzzle with a stand out CoD in Offbeat, but totally ruined by cluing an unknown, obscure dog as an anagram. Even with all the crossers, I couldn’t shuffle the remaining letters into anything that looked vaguely like a dog, so I pulled stumps on the 30min mark. I would suggest the book is now closed on worst clue of the year. Invariant

  23. 16 minutes all complete and correct, which looks good based on comments above. Like others, I worried about this spelling of LAMBAST which I had never seen before. However, I knew BRAD and BENNY and DANDIE DINMONT was familiar to me, but still took a while to tease out.

    I didn’t get a chance to comment yesterday, but probably my longest solve ever, although done extremely patchily through several interruptions.

    Thanks all.

  24. It’s only May – plenty of time for that book to be reopened – although I agree with everything you’ve said about that dog.
  25. I hear what you are saying. In fact I did better with today’s Daily Telegraph cryptic than I did with this QC.
  26. Dandie Dinmont! Goodness me. Gave up on this one and looked it up, as I couldn’t get the anagram fodder to shape into anything looking vaguely like a dog.
  27. I’m with mauefw on the dog. Couldn’t make head nor tail of the anagrist, so used a wordfinder to get DINMONT(which apparently is a wether sheep between one and two years old) and guessed DANDIE for the first bit. All in vain in any case as I’d inexplicably put SNEAR instead of SNEER at 20d. 15:17 WOE and a lookup. Thanks Orpheus and Chris.
  28. All looks okay when you read the analysis. However, I agree I’ve never heard of ‘Goodman’ and I’m in my 70s. Also 4D was utterly ridiculous. Who’s ever heard of a terrier with this name?
  29. From a 40 minute DNF yesterday to a 40 minute DNF today. I should have stayed in Cornwall.

    As a padawan solver, I find Random Name/animal clues (3ac, 8dn, 24ac) virtually impossible – is it best to just keep a list of random names which setters use to hand? And how do you learn whether it’s a random girl’s name (3ac) or another word for girl (6bn)?!

    NHO Benny Goodman, Linden Trees, Dandie Dinmont (like another solver, didn’t even see that it was an anagram !), or Brad nails, so would always have had trouble with today’s offering

    Not sure how Gold parses to OR in 8dn.

    Otherwise, lots of tricky wordplay today made this a long and painful route to giving up.

      1. Thank you, makes sense from that perspective – now another pretty niche bit of GK that starting cryptics has provided me.
  30. Bit of a literary flavour to this, with ‘Young Goodman Brown’ the title of a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Dandie Dinmont being named after a fictional character in Sir Walter Scott’s second novel, Guy Mannering.
  31. About 25 minutes and surprised it wasn’t longer. Quite a difficult puzzle which I found enjoyable. Didn’t parse everything. Thought I was on to a quick time at first – got 1ac straight away and ten clues on first pass. I was all over the grid after that, becoming bogged down in the NW corner. Elsewhere, I tried abroad which didn’t parse, and meant I couldn’t get offbeat so it had to be wrong. I searched my head for the alternative to abroad and was surprised when I found it. Offbeat was then the only answer, and it parsed. I stuck Benny Goodman in and he opened up dogsbody, biker and smock for me. I’d heard of the dog but didn’t know it was a terrier. Thanks, Chris for the blog, and Orpheus for the entertainment. GW.
  32. My track record against Orpheus is poor (solve rate ~30%) and Mrs Random’s Orpheus solve rate is ~50% (vs >90% for all of the other regular setters). Needless to say, we both DNF’d today. Mrs R finished in 57 minutes (having guessed the dog correctly), but unfortunately had PROD instead of BRAD, whereas I gave up the ghost after 66 minutes with 7 clues unsolved (the wretched dog, plus the entire SE corner).

    Mrs R’s time indicates that this was not a QC and, I’m afraid that both of us are now wondering whether we should give Orpheus a miss in future. Mrs R doesn’t like spending more than one cup of coffee on the puzzle, and I just get too demoralised when I can’t even get close to finishing.

    Sorry for my gloomy post today (let’s hope for more joy tomorrow), but thanks anyway to Orpheus and to chrisw91.

    1. I beg your pardon – I referenced you in the preamble and mistakenly chose the first letter of your title – Mr S. rather than Mr. R.
  33. Dandie Dinmont an old friend – my COD & WOD and my third one in! PG Tips Tea cards in the fifties were a great source of GK for animals, birds, butterflies and flowers. before that it was ‘fag’ cards.

    FOI 21dn MAIL

    LOI 1ac DUSK!

    I admire the way folks list all things they don’t know!
    Experienced solvers make mention of the things they do know, which makes life interesting.

    Lovely crossword – 13:45min.

    More Orpheus please!

    Edited at 2021-05-25 10:49 am (UTC)

    1. I know about town planning and Yeovil Town through the ages. Very happy to talk about both (much, much) more but setters never seem to give me the opportunity.
        1. Can we pretend I’ve got some checkers?
          Two theories — up the glovers clues TY making the second word city but I can’t make Stoke Ci out of the rest

          Or, I need be insert IM into a quiet place

          Or, biff Green Army from enumeration!

            1. Good grief. Thanks Chris for taking on extra hints work and profuse apologies to you Merlin for my patheticness!

              DNF for QC, Telegraph and now this!

  34. … because I’d never heard of a BRAD… Curses. I knew the dog and was happy with the Benny. I saw the ADORABLE BENGALI, too. In fact, I was feeling mightily pleased with myself at having spent just over 25 minutes on a difficult puzzle with just one clue to go, 25 across. But I just couldn’t think of a nail that was *R*D. It didn’t help that the only criminal environment I could think of was a den. I was looking for a noun not an adjective.
    Ah, well… Sigh. I very much liked this puzzle nevertheless, especially 1 down.
    With thanks to Chris and to Orpheus.
    1. LJ, can you remember a novel where the heroine’s mother breeds and is obsessed by Dandie Dinmonts and so the (adult) heroine feels neglected?
      1. This is from Sarah B’s post below. Is it useful?

        Gerald Durrell’s “Mother” had a Dandy Dinmont called Dodo in “My Family and Other Animals”, so no problem here!
        Sarah B

        1. I’ve racked my brain but can’t think of anything other than the Scott novel, Guy Mannering…intrigued!!
  35. A stinker and hence another DNF. NHO DANDIE DINMONT or BRAD and could not see OFFBEAT without initial letter and trying (fruitlessly obviously) to fit PC (constable) into answer. Not sure of LAMBASTE with an ‘E’ or scorn = SNEER either. Got GOODMAN straight away. Not having a good week.
  36. I knew I had heard of the dog as soon as the first D went in but needed a lot of checkers to then be sure of the spelling. Other than that, I must have been tuned in as I worked my way down the grid slowly but steadily. Liked OFFBEAT and ADRIFT. Don’t know why I knew the nail but it went in easily. I enjoyed this one so thanks to Orpheus, even if I appear to be in a minority today.
  37. Only held up by the dog — needed all of the checkers and then just put the remaining 6 letters in the least-likely-to-be-wrong order.
  38. The thing is I’ve seen comments before about DANDIE DINMONT, maybe here, maybe on the other side. I expect Jack’s database would come up with how often it’s appeared. As we so often say, one person’s GK etc etc, but this breed of terrier really isn’t that obscure. In fact, back in 2016 (according to Country Life) the DD was Britain’s third most popular breed of terrier. Mind you, that is a very particular readership!
    Anyway, I had a very slow start, only getting going a third of the way down the grid, but things started to motor once I got BIKER and I came in at 10 minutes. Based on everyone else’s comments, I’m going to claim this as a Good Day, although it is really just my target 😉
    I really enjoyed this one – lots of great surfaces and clever cryptics. I sort of reverse engineered BRAD from bradawl, LAMBASTE looks odd with the extra E, and GOODMAN took his time (4/4, 6/8?), but I really liked OFFBEAT and DOGSBODY.
    FOI Biker
    LOI Smock
    COD Romeo – it took will power to push Othello to one side!
    Many thanks Orpheus and Chris
    1. Just to point out it’s not my database, but everybody’s. I don’t know the layout on all devices but on a standard PC or laptop there’s a Search field at the top-right of the page indicated by a magnifying glass icon.

      A search on DINMONT suggests that the hound has come up only twice prior to today, in a 15×15 10 years ago and a Mephisto a year before that.

      1. You’re a marvel, Jack, that’s a great tip!

        Currently enjoying the 2011 comments on the Dandie Dinmont: “Didn’t know the darned dog”, “last in the dog, which I’d obviously never heard of”, “(unknown)”, “Total guess at the dog”, “The dog was new to me”, “came up with DONDIE DINMONT”, “the dastardly dog”, “I had DENNIS DINMONT for the dog”, “a wrong guess at DANDIE DENMONT”, “I had to resort to aids for the dog”, “had to cheat for the unheard of dog”, and “not having heard of ‘Dandie Dinmont'”. To be fair three people had heard of it …including Kevin! (“I imagine it as a little obnoxious terrier with its head hair tied up in a ribbon”)

      2. Where’s my humble pie? I’d better eat it! Sorry — just goes to show how the memory plays tricks. I was sure we’d seen it more recently. I must admit that I didn’t know about how to access the database — I’d just assumed that you have it at your fingertips. Thanks for the tip 😊

  39. DNF for me. I managed the terrier with all the checkers and the anagram eventually, but also biffed Prod for Brad which I’d never heard of.

    Nice to see the beautiful Elba appearing, the subject of my favourite palindrome: “Able I was ‘ere I saw Elba”

  40. Failed on GOODMAN and carelessly biffed Slack instead of SMOCK. Oh, and looked up BRAD.
    It so happens I thought of the DANDIE DINMONT almost straight away as soon as I got DOUBLE DEALING but also thought it was spelt Dandy so hesitated. (Failed to notice anagram)
    Very fast to start with but then stuck on the above, having reckoned at first that it was going to be A Good Day.
    Actually I admit I do very vaguely remember Benny Goodman, and I once read a novel where the heroine’s mother bred Dandie Dinmonts.
    FOsI DUSK, DOGSBODY (good clue). Also liked OFFBEAT, BIKER, ROMEO.
    Thanks vm as ever, Chris.
    1. I did wonder whether you might struggle with Benny Goodman as being the wrong music!! Expect he often played in a combo!
  41. Well I had heard of the dog but was unsure how to spell it so waited for most of the checkers. NHO brad as a sort of nail but it seemed likely. Got goodman (having heard of Benny) by extension from goodwife, which I knew. Would never have spelled lambaste with a final e. All in all another tough workout, finished in 26 mins. Some lovely clues though, so thanks to Orpheus and Chris.

    FOI – 11ac BIKER
    LOI – 23ac OFFBEAT
    COD – 1dn DOGSBODY (with an honourable mention to 23ac OFFBEAT)

  42. Well over the hour compared with my usual less than 20 minutes!! It felt like a 15 x 15 really — not that I minded as that’s the level I’m aiming for, but I would have been very discouraged a few years ago. I had to google ‘small terriers’ to get the dog, even with the checkers, so technically a DNF. NHO GOODMAN either but I biffed it.
  43. Gerald Durrell’s “Mother” had a Dandy Dinmont called Dodo in “My Family and Other Animals”, so no problem here!
    Sarah B
  44. …and got there in the end. I remembered that over 45 years ago a housemate I shared a student house with was always referring to his useful tools, one of which was a bradawl for helping get nails into wood. Useful carpentry knowledge in the recesses of my memory!
  45. 4:39 for what I thought was a nicely pitched QC by Orpheus although I realise I may be in a minority today.
    Helped by knowing the wretched hound from somewhere (although I have always found Scott’s novels rather tedious I’m afraid) and the anagram made me realise I would have misspelled it otherwise. The crossers provided by the mutt helped me clinch 23 ac “Offbeat” which was my COD.
    NHO “goodman” as a household term but fortunately had heard of Benny.
    Thanks to Chris and Orpheus
  46. ….having continued to hide the setters name I revealed it after 25 minutes knowing that it just had to be ‘awful Orpheus’. Threw in the towel having looked up Dandie Dinmont with 5 left unsolved.
    It had to be Goodman but NHO old title.
    Not in the mood today perhaps.
    Thanks all
    John George

    Edited at 2021-05-25 02:58 pm (UTC)

  47. Tough today despite one of us knowing the dog and the other knowing the goodman from reading historical novels. Enjoyed 23a. Took time to sort out the ne corner, but got there in the end. No idea about time, but longer than usual.
  48. ….was the definition part of GOODMAN, but “The King of Swing” was a shoo-in (and seemed to match OK).

    The guy who used to mend our Radio Rentals telly in the 70’s always thought our West Highland White Terrier was a DANDIE DINMONT. The washing machine engineer thought she was a Sealyham !

    Solved within target, but with the realisation that many would struggle.

    FOI DUSK
    LOI LAMBASTE
    COD MANOR
    TIME 4:01

  49. Tough, a workout, for 23 minutes, so, satisfying to be able to complete.
    DNK Brad, but Brod, Bred, Brid, Brud and Bryd didn’t make a word with -awl, so I took a punt.
    Thanks to Orpheus and blogger.

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