Another real Tuesday struggle – for me, at least. So much of the top half did not yield that I thought I wasn’t going to finish. 14 minutes later and I was proved correct – I didn’t finish (by one letter)! 16ac did for me. Where have all my 7-8 minute solves gone?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | Settle always has dog across it (3,2) |
| PAY UP – always (AY – poetic) with dog (PUP) around. | |
| 7 | Set fire to one part of house, which may be brought to court (9) |
| LITIGABLE – set fire to (LIT), one (I), part of house (GABLE). | |
| 9 | Comic book contributing to human gaiety (5) |
| MANGA – inside hu(MAN GA)iety. NHO this type of Japanese comic book which often contains material that is intended for adults – but it was clear from the clue. | |
| 10 | Unfortunately shut, a sure store of knowledge (9) |
| THESAURUS – anagram (unfortunately) of SHUT A SURE. | |
| 11 | Perish, failing to finish slimming programme (3) |
| DIE – slimming program failing to finish (DIE)t. | |
| 12 | Wastes no time and acts to start machine? (7,2) |
| PRESSES ON – double definition- the second one humorous. | |
| 14 | Person so organised departs — for such a walk? (9) |
| SPONSORED – anagram (organised) of PERSON SO, departs (D). | |
| 16 | Machine gun that sounds as if it is leaking? (3) |
| UZI – homophone (sounds as if it is) leaking – oozy. Well, I think I have heard of this, but only now that I’ve looked it up, but I didn’t get the American ‘Zee’ on an alphabet trawl. It’s a compact sub-machine gun made in Israel. | |
| 18 | No bad notice returned to me for disc (9) |
| MEDALLION – no (NO) bad (ILL) notice (AD) all returned with me (ME) at the front. | |
| 20 | Level time in race perhaps (5) |
| EVENT – level (EVEN), time (T). | |
| 21 | Flower lies tangled with weeds (9) |
| EDELWEISS – anagram (tangled) of LIES WEEDS. Clocked the anagram but spent some while arranging the spelling. | |
| 22 | Artist may work at this line, simplicity coming first (5) |
| EASEL – line (L) with simplicity (EASE) coming first. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Shook vigorously and questioned persistently (6) |
| PUMPED – double definition. The first as in a hand shake. | |
| 2 | Bet sketch shows old American dandy (6,6) |
| YANKEE DOODLE – bet (YANKEE – I don’t bet but this rang a faint bell), sketch (DOODLE). As in Yankee Doodle Dandy I suppose. | |
| 3 | New play put on stage, initially for one with big bill (8) |
| PLATYPUS – anagram (new) of PLAY PUT on top of (S)tage. | |
| 4 | Two articles on extremely noble goddess (6) |
| ATHENE – two article (A, THE) on top of (N)obl(E). | |
| 5 | Turkish officer secures right site for mausoleum (4) |
| AGRA – Turkish officer (AGA) holding right (R). Aga is an Ottoman Empire military commander. Site of the Taj Mahal. | |
| 6 | Argue about a child (6) |
| REASON – about (RE), a (A), child (SON). | |
| 8 | Ruins meals for Scottish celebrations (5,7) |
| BURNS SUPPERS – ruins meals (BURNS SUPPERS). | |
| 13 | African takes Europeans through short canal (8) |
| SUDANESE – Europeans (DANES) inside a short canal (SUE)z. | |
| 14 | Adder, and when to see it? (6) |
| SUMMER – to add up/sum up and someone who does it. The word play suggests that adders (the snakes) are more active in the summer. | |
| 15 | No good in growing grape (6) |
| RAISIN – no good (G) in growing (RAISIN)g. | |
| 17 | At home quiet, we hear: drop in (6) |
| INSTIL – at home (IN), homophone (we hear) of ‘still’. | |
| 19 | Rule on new garden feature (4) |
| LAWN – rule (LAW) on top of new (N). | |
17:18. Slowed by thinking first that Scots might have Burns Dinners instead of BURNS SUPPERS. Also took a while to see gable was the house part required for LITIGABLE. Enjoyed RAISIN , INSTIL and SUDANESE most.
There were some difficult bits – I wanted to put litigate, but it didn’t fit, so I had to wait. Fortunately, reason is a chestnut, and went right in, allowing me to see gable. Medallion was a little tricky, and I nearly put in Athena before remembering my Greek first declension. Of course, it could be the Latin version.
Time: 11:46.
Came very close to a half-hour solve but stumbled at the end. I’d put in BURNS DINNERS and had no idea what machine guns might be spelled I_I — my guesses were IPI and IWI which I thought might be pronounced “I pee” or “I wee.” Hahahaha!
Never heard of YANKEE for a bet but of course as a Yank myself guessed it quickly enough. More used to seeing INSTIL spelled as INSTILL but couldn’t think of anything else to put there and turned out to be right!
Just learned from a recent puzzle that AGA is an oven and now find it’s a Turkish officer, too!
Being a nerdy milliennial I have indeed heard of MANGA and even went through a phase of trying to draw my own, copied heavily from my Ranma 1/2 Volume 1. *embarrassed grin* Fortunately those sketches have all been lost in the sands of time!
I loooooooved Ranma 1/2 and owned many of those ‘How to Draw Manga’ books ubiquitous in the early 2000s.
Don’t forget the Aga Khan!
Not easy at all, taking me 8:10. The last 10 seconds spent checking that BURNS SUPPERS was a thing (the BURNS part seemed clear but SUPPERS didn’t seem right since it’s a straight definition).
I never heard of Burns Suppers, but my poor wallet and I are very well acquainted with manga. I also know what an uzi is, maybe from playing too much Worms video game when I was younger
I found Medallion really tricky and still dont understand how Instil is Drop In (but I’ll look it up in the dictionary)
I also didn’t know that Aga was something other than a stove.
I found the whole thing really hard truth be told. PRESSESON made me smile though!
Does the Aga Khan ring a bell? That’s how I always remember it!
I know of… Chaka Khan of ‘I’m every woman’ fame 😂
“Ain’t no body” is her best 😊
16 minutes, so back into my red zone (>15 minutes) for the first time since 19th August. I struggled to get started, did better, but then struggled to finish it off. The bad ending was due to carelessness on my part because I had marked the grid on my print-out to show 8dn as (6,6) instead of (5,7). Very annoying as I’m very familiar with BURNS SUPPER which should have been a write-in. NHO MANGA but the checkers confirmed that it had to be. I knew of a weapon pronounced “oozy” but wasn’t sure how to spell it.
It’s comforting to see that there are some adults who don’t know of MANGA. I must have come across BURNS SUPPER–here, no doubt–once in the dim past (in my case, most of the past is dim); fortunately, I had the U from UZI, so there was no chance of bunging in DINNERS. A slow but unsteady solve at 8:01.
One man’s GK etc etc but I am surprised at the numbers not having heard of the Uzi. I need hardly remind your Lordship that Arnie chooses one in the gun store in The Terminator, and Trinity fires a pair of them in The Matrix!
Enjoyed the puzzle, slightly on the harder side of medium, COD LITIGABLE, time 09:22 for 1.2K and a Good Day.
Many thanks Chris and Teazel.
Templar
“Da Ooozi … nein … milleee… metuh”
Hiiiiiiii
Yeah we just watched T 1 2 and 3 with the kids this month. We’re putting off the Matrix, might set off an existential crisis in my younger child
The older one is already pulling apart the time travel paradoxes as is tradition for anyone who has ever seen Terminator!
“You know your weapons, buddy!”
I preferred the phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range.
Just what you see, pal
Played by the Roger Corman/Joe Dante favourite Dick Miller, who seemed to have a monopoly on walk parts during the 80’s.
L-Plates! Good to hear your voice(even though heavily disguised with thick accent).
25 minutes determined to parse all as I went.
FOI: PLATYPUS.
LOI: INSTIL.
Favourite: LITIGABLE also, SUDANESE.
20’21” for a slow wade through some tough clues. LITIGABLE responsible for most of the delay with …ATEE and …ATES both the only things I could imagine (but not parse) and while I should have jumped to BURNS SUPPERS, I didn’t and wasted much time looking for synonyms for ‘ruins’ that began with T.
Enjoyed PLATYPUS very much
Like Templar I am surprised by the number who have not heard UZI – it seems to me that there wasn’t an 80’s action film that didn’t feature/reference them somewhere!
Thank you Teazel and Chris
I rarely watch films, and never watch action movies.
Man after my own heart! I am pleased to know that I’m not the only person who rarely watches films.
A bit of a struggle. Perhaps consequent to too many hours of TV. We do excel at the ceremonial. Shame our economy is not so well dressed.
Couldn’t parse MEDALLION, thanks Chris. I pronounce UZI with a short U, as in UP, so had to think for a moment to get the homophones.
In my corner chair in the SCC bang on 28.00. Thanks Chris and Teazel for the mental exercise today.
An interesting puzzle from Teazel but anything but a Quick Cryptic. Much of it could form the basis for a good 15squared puzzle. Too clever by half.
Thanks, Chris. John M.
I’ve been at the QC for 5 years or so and yestersday’s and today’s have been…less than fun. I move on to the ‘proper one’ on some days but the usual 0500 15 min solve hasn’t worked on these last two.
I’m loathe to complain but…it’s not fun if they’re too obscure.
I’m joining Steakcity in the SCC today, with a time of 21 minutes. Most of my hold-ups were in the NW corner (probably where Steak’s comfy chair is) where I also NHO MANGA, and took a long time to think of YANKEE DOODLE and PAY UP. I initially tried to anagram [WITH WEEDS], but quickly tired of that, and then bunged in LITIGATED until BURNS SUPPERS caused a rethink. Go into any chippie in Scotland and ask for a fish/haggis/black pudding/ white pudding/sausage SUPPER and it comes with chips. The only time a supper doesn’t include chips is a Burns Supper?
In one Scottish chippie they had ‘Forfar Bridie’ on the chalk board menu. My husband asked ‘What’s a Forfar Bridie?’ The answer was ‘It’s just like any other bridie really’.
…and if you had asked for a Forfar Bridie Supper, you would have got one with chips – lol
I feel that this was way too difficult to be classed as a QC. Did not enjoy this one at all.
Unlike others, I didn’t find this too hard, but then I knew BURNS SUPPER , remembered UZI and saw LITIGABLE quickly from the checkers. I had a question mark over “Shook vigorously” for PUMPED – thanks for elucidating, Chris. And thanks to Teazel too. 4:54.
6:25 but with a typo at 20a, ENVET. Drat! Didn’t know MANGA.
Thanks Teazel and Chris.
Tricky today, DNF, unhappy with both INSTIL and INSTAL, 17d and plumped for the wrong one in the end, thinking that if someone is talking and runs out of words (s)he may have STALLED. So my answer is not very far off, but looking up instil(l) in Wiktionary I found
1 To cause a quality to become part of someone’s nature.
… It is important to instill discipline in a child at an early age.
2 To pour in (medicine, for example) drop by drop.
of which 2 is good enough for me. Andyf
Failed to finish as I couldn’t get BURNS DINNERS out of my head, therefore UZI was not considered. Not that I’ve ever heard of it anyway! I’ve heard of BURNS SUPPERS so rather annoyed with myself.
Echo most of what’s ^^.
Teazel is one of the setters who INSTILs a sense of foreboding in me, and so it came to pass.
Looking back, I can’t see anything in particular that held me up, but I think it was the bottom left corner that caused most headscratching.
RAISIN went in unparsed, then SPONSORED, MEDALLION, EDELWEISS and finally SUMMER.
8:56
Thanks blogger but I think Teazel lost the plot on this one. Too many tenuous ( pumped instil etc) and obscure ( manga uzi etc) for a quickie in my opinion
I found this mostly very accessible, and was down to the machine gun as my LOI in under 8 minutes. Unfortunately I also had Burns Dinners and looked at I-I for some time before the penny dropped and I was able to correct to Suppers and complete the Uzi. About 10 minutes in all.
Did we not have Litigate very recently? And now Litigable. Clearly the setters don’t talk to each other, but what is the editor doing? Could he not “encourage a rethink”?
Many thanks Chris for the blog
Cedric
Thought I might be heading for a seat in the SCC, but a short break for a phone call seemed to focus the mind and allowed me to avoid it. Finished in 17.53 with UZI (very familiar with from films etc but oozy was a stretch for me), REASON, MEDALLION and ADDER, which I’m now sure I’ve seen before.
On the plus side I had no pink squares today.
Thanks to Chris
DNF by a long way. Just not on the right wavelength at all and never heard of UZI, MANGA or LITIGABLE. Hopeless – worst effort for years!
Just under 13 minutes today with LOI BURNS SUPPERS. I have celebrated Burn’s Night and wanted to put DINNERS but the man with the UZI stopped me. I even started to think about other machine guns.
There was a MANGA exhibition at The British Museum not long ago which I remember well .
Like John above I wondered about PUMPED and didn’t think of handshakes -thanks for that.
LITIGABLE late in and constructed from the clue. Following the setter’s precise instructions is the way to go- as long as you can identify them correctly.
David
My worst performance for ages. DNF. Will draw a veil. FOI MANGA. NHO UZI, nor YANKEE = bet. BURNS SUPPER And LITIGABLE I did manage but failed on too many to list.
Oh well. Thanks to Chris.
10:28, again online. Carrying on from my thoughts yesterday, I really don’t much enjoy solving online! It may be partly because I’m using a touch screen, so many opportunities for FFS, but also I don’t savour the clues in the same way as when I’m writing them out. Very old-fashioned of me, that’s for sure 😅
UZI confused me a bit – have never seen any of the above-mentioned films and am not really aware of how to say it, but always imagined it would be pronounced utsie, with a short U like put and ts like a Germanic Z rather than an English Z.
FOI Manga LOI Sponsored COD Burns suppers
Thanks Teazel and Chris
I’m not sure that FFS should really be introduced as an acronym for (I assume?) Fat Finger Syndrome … unless of course you deliberately meant it in its more usual sense! 😂
Well I did think carefully about this, but thought I’d risk it since people have used it before! But I must admit that the other sense does sometimes cross my mind when I’m suffering from said syndrome, usually with an ‘Oh!’ in front 😂 Perhaps we need a more appropriate abbreviation / acronym. Any suggestions out there?
Perhaps 4F, as in “Fell Foul of a Fat Finger”. Usage “Was going well until I 4F again.
How about AFF (All Fingers and Fumbs)?
All of the above are far more elegant! I am ashamed of myself 😂
I believe it is pronounced with the English “z” – so it is “eww-zee”.
Thank you for that😊 Completely different from what I imagined, but not quite oozy either!
Got to this late and struggled. Having read the comments though I’m pleased with a 15m solve especially since last week’s typo fest this was all green. More fun in retrospect.
21 mins…
Some nice clues I thought. I had heard of Manga (along with Anime etc.) and following on from the other day with the Bren gun (where I tried to stick Uzi in the answer) I was pleasantly surprised to find it here. Funny how that happens sometimes.
FOI – 9ac “Manga”
LOI – 1dn “Pumped”
COD – 12ac “Presses On”
Thanks as usual!
PS. There was a column in the Saturday Times all about crosswords in their feedback section. Is that a regular thing? Don’t remember seeing it before.
The puzzles editor fills in for the feedback editor when she is away, so yes, from time to time!
Well into the SCC today but happy at least to finish a Teazel. NHO MANGA, but luckily spotted the hidden. Very familiar with UZI – think it’s an age thing! Didn’t know Yankee = bet, and wasn’t sure about instil for drop in. Couldn’t parse SUDANESE and needed the blog. I love Teazel puzzles. I find them tricky and they take me forever but I always learn some new GK. Many thanks Chris and Teazel.
Far from enjoyable today, I’m afraid. Just too many DNKs/NHOs/pure guesses (incl. MANGA, ATHENE, AGRA, UZI). Somewhat inexplicably, I also put BURNS DINNERS, which left an impossible task at 16a. Quick time for me (29 minutes), but it goes down as a 2-error DNF.
Mrs Random also DNF’d on UZI (neither of us have ever seen, or have any desire to watch a Terminator-style action movie) and seemed to struggle even more than I did with the rest of the crossword. So, a thumbs down from her, as well.
Thanks to Teazel and Chris
Hasta la vista, Random Chaps.
He’ll live
Delighted that so many found it so hard! I thought I had four clues, but only had three, as I put ATHENA. Probably thinking about their posters! I thought of BURNS, but couldn’t think of the second part, so didn’t put it in. The three I got were DIE, LAWN and EVENT. I think this is a classic example of a QC that really isn’t a QC, and is more than likely to quickly deter newbies rather than encourage them to continue. This is a shame.
Nice to have another Ian amongst us!
It was a hard one today Ian, but – if I can make a suggestion – think about the clues that were anagrams. These were often the ones I concentrated on when I began. Look at the words used in 14ac and 21ac (organised and tangled). These are good indicators that you are looking at something that needs to be unscrambled.
Also, you can find online a list of common abbreviations in crosswords. Every QC has a smattering of these and you can learn the main ones reasonably quickly.
I hope this helps.
Finished just over our target. Slow to start, had litigated for 7a, until we solved 8d. No problem with uzi, just the spelling. Vaguely knew manga. Been to a number of Burns suppers, good fun.
After days of struggling with the QC, I finished this one in 13.27. I have heard of MANGA but thought it was a music style! Didn’t manage to parse SUDANESE but nothing else seemed to fit. Otherwise I found it quite straightforward .
Sadly with those who thought this way to hard / discouraging for a QC. Lots of tricky clues and obscure knowledge, though I did know UZI.
I found this to be a bit tricky, but I got there in the end. I’m from a part of the UK where supper is a cup of Ovaltine and a sliver of cheese, so Burns Dinner was the obvious answer. It took some time to realise my error and complete the grid.
Having taken about 45 mins, I was glad to see that others found this hard. I also had litigates and Burns dinners, which held me up badly. Got there in the end and relatively happy given the level of difficulty.
I struggle badly with the use of the word ‘about’ as the wordplay. I can never work out if it means an abbreviation of the word about, if it means a word going backwards or if it means a word that goes around another. For 6dn, I wasted time looking for a a five letter synonym of argue to go around a to make a six letter word for a child.
Also, I got 1ac but don’t understand ‘ay’ for always. Apologies if I’m being a bit thick, but can someone explain this?
Chambers: 1. Ever 2.always 3. For ever
It’s Scots, N English or archaic.
About: that’s exactly why it’s a cryptic crossword! Misdirection rules!
Sorry to have been AWOL today but been busy. In an additional misdirection – it’s also poetic – sometimes with an ay’E’.
Thanks for the clarification – much appreciated.
Well over an hour but got it all. Very pleased to parse everything although some biffing.
“Uzi 9mm” The Terminator (oozy!)
Aga as in the Aga Khan.
Very good
Couldn’t have done this a year or two ago but thanks to trying most days – and this site- have come a long way.
Many thanks for all your help
Nick