Some great clues and a fun puzzle from Wurm. I didn’t know how to parse 1ac but was fortunately enlightened by an always helpful source. Just on 8 minutes – so this flowed well – especially in the top half.
My recent grandparent-duty trip caused my longest break from blogging since the QC started (in 2014, I think). I found I was happy ‘in retirement’ so it seems right to allow others to have a bash at blogging. I’m told that volunteers are coming forward – and I know you’ll treat them gently! This, therefore, may be my last regular blog but I will not be a stranger to this rather wonderful forum. I would like to thank everyone for putting up with my typos and for all your posts. Special thanks to jackkt without whom I would have foundered years ago and also to vinyl1 for organising. This seems too good a moment not to mention my huge respect for the SCC regulars – keep at it and keep enjoying!
Definitions are underlined in bold italics.
| Across | |
| 1 | First victim President succeeding James B? (4) |
| ABEL – whilst the answer was clear, I have to own up to some help from a friend on this one. President (ABE Lincoln) 16th US President succeeded James Buchanan (15th). | |
| 4 | Swine: chap always seen in celebration (8) |
| HOGMANAY – swine (HOG), chap (MAN), always (AY). | |
| 8 | Accelerator and choke (8) |
| THROTTLE – double definition. | |
| 9 | Dry air circulating by day (4) |
| ARID – anagram (circulating) of AIR, day (D). | |
| 10 | Quiet beer for an upright member (4) |
| PALE – quiet (P), beer (ALE). I’m thinking ‘paling/pale’ as an upright part of a fence. | |
| 11 | Flustered later in court battle (8) |
| WATERLOO – anagram (flustered) of LATER inside court (WOO). | |
| 12 | Lay out wearing undergarment? (6) |
| INVEST – wearing undergarment (IN VEST). | |
| 14 | Stoat in mere swimming (6) |
| ERMINE – anagram (swimming) of IN MERE. | |
| 16 | Show less restraint in puzzle? (8) |
| BEWILDER – show less restraint (BE WILDER). | |
| 18 | Carbon works in Barrow (4) |
| CART – carbon (C), works (ART). | |
| 19 | Old Chinese leader grabbing tail of black shark (4) |
| MAKO – Old Chinese leader (MAO – I considered Tao but that’s a philosophy), inside which is blac(K). Mako is a type of shark – and, fyi, is a green shrub and a bellbird in NZ. | |
| 20 | Creature ransacked tent area (8) |
| ANTEATER – anagram (ransacked) go TENT AREA. | |
| 22 | Ruler taking over north, in part (8) |
| GOVERNOR – part of takin(G OVER NOR)th. | |
| 23 | Indian state accommodating unknown artist (4) |
| GOYA – Indian state (GOA) inside which is unknown (Y). | |
| Down | |
| 2 | Country curses wet weather (7) |
| BAHRAIN – curses (BAH!), wet weather (RAIN). | |
| 3 | Cracking solo — Coltrane finally free (5) |
| LOOSE – anagram (cracking) of SOLO, Coltran(E). | |
| 4 | Sexy husband on the books (3) |
| HOT – husband (H) on top of books (OT). | |
| 5 | Fantastic support for stars (5,4) |
| GREAT BEAR – fantastic (GREAT), support (BEAR). | |
| 6 | This makes trestle from mixture of letters (7) |
| ANAGRAM – a rather wonderful cryptic definition, trestle being an anagram of letters. COD. | |
| 7 | Friend has a Russian fighter over initially (5) |
| AMIGO – a (A), Russian fighter (MIG), (O)ver. | |
| 11 | Shy and tense (9) |
| WITHDRAWN – and (WITH), tense (DRAWN). | |
| 13 | Nutty pie in my view best example (7) |
| EPITOME – anagram (nutty) of PIE, in my view (TO ME). | |
| 15 | Creche in North Surrey moved (7) |
| NURSERY – North (N), anagram (moved) of SURREY. | |
| 17 | Muse employed by some singer at opera (5) |
| ERATO – inside sing(ER AT O)pera. | |
| 18 | Scottish group on key makes ringing sound (5) |
| CLANG – Scottish group (CLAN) on top of musical key (G). | |
| 21 | Sailor not entirely bitter (3) |
| TAR – not entirely bitter (TAR)t. | |
Cheated by looking up BEWILDER, but this enabled me to see WITHDRAWN, my LOI. 28 mins even with a cheat – very slow today. Many thanks for the blog Chris. I really needed it to parse ABEL and ANAGRAM (hangs head in shame). Great puzzle, especially liked BEWILDER. Many thanks all.
Confusion continues! Obviously I DNF, but I did better on the 15×15 than I did on the QC! I wish I understood how these things worked.
Put simply, some of the QC’s are tricky and some of the cryptics relatively easy. But you knew that already of course.
What you might not know is there’s a website saying exactly how easy:
https://xwdsnitch.herokuapp.com/
Today’s cryptic was about as easy as they come!
Thank you.
Abel was my first answer. First victim immediately gave me the answer. Most of the QC was not too difficult for me, but I did struggle with bewilder and epitome, both of which I had to resort to aids for.
Invest was pencilled in for a long time before I penned it. Pale too had me guessing for a while. I did see pale right away but I could not see why an upright member was linked. In it went anyway, and now that I have come here I can see how it did indeed fit.
A few clues gave me pause for thought including ABEL, PALE and MAKO. I needed all but one of the checkers for ANAGRAM and submitted with an unparsed WITHDRAWN. My LOI and COD was BEWILDER in a just outside target 9:14.
This was payback for my good performance yesterday. I struggled at first, but eventually got going around the edges and reached the 6-to-go point after 25 minutes. Unfortunately, 25 minutes later I had made no further progress and had precious few ideas as to how the remaining clues worked or even what the definitions were.
19a was clearly MAKO or MAok (I knew not which), but WATERLOO, WITHDRAWN, INVEST, EPITOME and BEWILDER were never even close to appearing on my radar. So, 50 minutes of toil and a thumping DNF.
Many thanks to Wurm and Chris.
P.S. Looking back at my records over the past year or so, I have had far less success with Wurm’s offerings than with any other setter. Only 2 solves under 45 minutes, but 6 DNFs (plus 2 over the hour) from his last 13 outings. This contrasts markedly with my overall 80-85% success rate and 35-40 minute average over that period. Why has he done this?
I found it very hard to spot the definitions today and looking up top only 5 of the clues have multiword defs. Just no idea what I was aiming for.
At least you had the good sense to pull up stumps after 50 mins. I was still going after an hour and 50 mins, and still 16ac eluded me!
Another unpleasant 1hr45 of effort after yesterday’s 2hrs. At least the alphabet trawl at the end for BEWILDER led to a successful solve.
(Noting also the surface of 1A led me towards James Bond which then had me putting in SPYO thinking of SPIRO AGNEW who I think was Gerald Ford’s VP. Almost immediately removed it. Once I got ABEL, I realised it referred to James Buchanan but not aware of who followed. Nice clue)
Edit: just tried the 15×15 … had all but three done in 45-mins. Got stuck on my final one which came down to an incorrect crosser and then with some more alphabet trawling had it all done in 1hr12. All in all much more enjoyable than this QC.
A pretty quick solve over a coffee out, but threw in Episode for 13d as LO and a fit but impossible parse. I meant to go back to it when I got home but forgot, so a DNF.
Can I add my thanks to Chris for your clear and helpful blogs over the years. Glad to read you will be around in this role for a while yet, and then as a contributor.
Got Abel from Kane!
All done in one course, unlike yesterday’s dnf
DNF
A slow solve anyway at 25 minutes but stumped by BEWILDER for a DNF.
DNF. I am one of the many who was bewildered by 16ac.
My long-forgotten O-level in American History was useful for 1ac; since the clue required us to shorten Abraham to Abe, James B could have been given in the clue as Jim B.
Another DNF for me. Roll on Wednesday.
COD 1a ABEL.
NHO Erato or Mako which didn’t help.
I thought things could only improve after yesterday. I was wrong.
My performance today was abysmal. Almost 2 hours for a DNF after failing to get 16ac. Clue after clue had me tied up in knots.
Thanks for the blog Chris. However inept I am, the efforts of you and your fellow bloggers are hugely appreciated.
You may know this, but it helps to look for the definition at the beginning or end of the clue. Could be one word or several. That’s the most common type of clue and may help to focus on what you’re being asked to solve. Sometimes it’s the whole clue but not that often – then there are the two halves (a double definition). There are more but that’s probably enough for now. Good luck!
Thanks Chris – sage advice which I will follow.
Gary
Nice puzzle – but couldn’t get BEWILDER.
Although obvious when revealed.