My solving time was 17 minutes.
I found this a lot more difficult than the average QC including one answer that might not appear out of place in a Mephisto puzzle. The presence of J, Q and Z alerted me to the possibility of a pangram but when I checked I found the letters V,W,X and Y are missing and thought it rather odd that they were consecutive.
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. I usually omit all reference to positional indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Welshman’s raised floor (4) |
| DAIS | |
| DAI’S (Welshman’s). The name is derived from David. | |
| 3 | Strained sweet courses knocked back (8) |
| STRESSED | |
| DESSERTS (sweet courses) reversed [knocked back] | |
| 8 | Exercise before small drink (5-2) |
| PRESS-UP | |
| PRE (before), S (small), SUP (drink) | |
| 10 | Suppose old identification number unusable ultimately (5) |
| OPINE | |
| O (old), PIN (identification number), {unusabl}E [ultimately]. I wasn’t sure about the literal here but on reflection it’s fine. | |
| 11 | Group of musical mimics curtailed trip, reportedly barred on Scottish isle (7,4) |
| TRIBUTE BAND | |
| TRI{p} [curtailed], BUTE (Scottish isle), then BAND sounds like [reportedly] “banned” [barred]. I took ages to come up with this one. | |
| 13 | Key tip joining variable fabric (6) |
| CHINTZ | |
| C (key), HINT (tip), Z (variable) | |
| 15 | Jack and Nigel arranged short catchy tune (6) |
| JINGLE | |
| J (Jack – playing card), then anagram [arranged] of NIGEL | |
| 17 | Dark, cold agent, powerfully built, needing no introduction (11) |
| CREPUSCULAR | |
| C (cold), REP (agent), {m}USCULAR (powerfully built). A very tough literal but the wordplay was helpful. | |
| 20 | Friend in the past touring Michigan (5) |
| AMIGO | |
| AGO (in the past) containing [touring] MI (Michigan) | |
| 21 | Signior regularly holds arm up in the air (2,5) |
| IN LIMBO | |
| {s}I{g}N{i}O{r} [regularly] contains [holds] LIMB (arm) | |
| 22 | Move along slippery surface with girl following cones maybe (3-5) |
| ICE-SKATE | |
| ICES (ice-cream cones maybe), KATE (girl) | |
| 23 | Eager, bringing forward new joint (4) |
| KNEE | |
| KEEN (eager) becomes KNEE when bringing forward N (new) | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Fool declines credit (8) |
| DIPSTICK | |
| DIPS (declines), TICK (on credit). It’s actually a metal rod for measuring the oil level in an engine but it was popularised as meaning a fool in the TV sitcom Only Fools and Horses (1981+) when used by Delboy to insult his younger brother, Rodney. He also called him a plonker. | |
| 2 | Ancient British tribe somewhat artistic, enigmatic (5) |
| ICENI | |
| Hidden in [somewhat] {artist}IC ENI{gmatic} | |
| 4 | Hat drunkard pinches quietly (6) |
| TOPPER | |
| TOPER (drunkard) contains [pinches] P (quietly) | |
| 5 | A Manc goalie, awfully self-important (11) |
| EGOMANIACAL | |
| Anagram [awfully] of A MANC GOALIE. Another toughie. It seems that Manc is short for Manchester which comes as news to me. I’ve never been there. Edit: Thanks to Alf for pointing out it’s short for Mancunian. |
|
| 6 | Singular language used by golf party (7) |
| SHINDIG | |
| S (singular), HINDI (language), G (golf – NATO). Apparently the word had its origins in 19th century America, something to do with dancing on a crowded floor. | |
| 7 | Fight between two outstanding lawyers primarily (4) |
| DUEL | |
| DUE (outstanding – still to be paid), L{awyers} [primarily] | |
| 9 | One appearing in court in connection with a racket? (11) |
| SHUTTLECOCK | |
| A cryptic definition with reference to the game of badminton | |
| 12 | Choppy sea, for me, horrifying (8) |
| FEARSOME | |
| Anagram [choppy] of SEA FOR ME | |
| 14 | Slope incorporated railway (7) |
| INCLINE | |
| INC (incorporated), LINE (railway) | |
| 16 | Whimsical old fashion designer embracing individual (6) |
| QUAINT | |
| QUANT (old fashion designer – Mary) containing [embracing] I (individual). The Times is breaking its own rule here as Mary Quant (b 1930) is still alive aged 93. | |
| 18 | Mark, during Christmas, served up fruit (5) |
| LEMON | |
| M (mark) contained by [during] NOEL (Christmas) reversed [served up] | |
| 19 | Tasteless stuff supported by one French filmmaker (4) |
| TATI | |
| TAT (tasteless stuff), I (one). Jacques Tati (1907-1982). | |
Another tough challenge with plenty of pencil across the grid. Grateful to Jackkt for the parsing of 13a chintz among others. Had 23a the wrong way round (again!) until 12d Fearsome sorted me out.
FOI 1a Dais.
LOI 16d Quaint
COD 22a Ice Skate.
Thank you, Jackkt, for your sympathy – I too found this difficult. In fact, disastrous: managed almost all the right half, but hardly anything in the left. Many are doable with the crossers, but if the crossers ditto, then one is helpless….. NHO DIPSTICK (with this meaning) or TRIBUTE BAND (I’m the wrong sort of musician – cooler son knew it). A comfort to read that bank holidays are “traditionally tough” – thanks, Blighter.
About 11 minutes. Overall, I quite enjoyed this one, despite my last two taking about three minutes between them. I was going great guns until then. DUEL took a silly amount of time, because I didn’t lift and separate the right bits, and then I thought I’d finished at 9:47 but discovered that I hadn’t done 16d QUAINT. By then, I’d stopped the clock, so don’t have an exact time.
In retrospect I’m a bit surprised at that one, but imagine (hope) it was a blip. If we’re going to start getting more living people alongside brand names, I think we should be told!
As others have commented, I was also unsure about the definition for CREPUSCULAR – I too always thought it related to twilight.
FOI Dais LOI Quaint COD Jingle
Thanks Breadman and Jack
Agree with those above who found this on the hard side, crepuscular, tati unknown, thought the easy 1a dais was going to give an easier ride, how wrong.
Solved on the road to Rio, well, on the flight anyway. Luckily took less than 8hrs although I did think at one point it could be a close call.
LOI DIPSTICK. Inflight internet a mixed blessing.
Thanks Jack and setter.
34 mins…in two sessions
I think I was also suffering from some kind of Easter brain fog, as I found this a struggle. NHO of 17ac “Crepuscular”, although the wordplay was kind, and had difficulty in spelling “Egomaniacal”, originally missing out the second “a”. Debated somewhat whether fearsome was really horrifying, but came to the conclusion that it could be.
Had to resort to an alphabet trawl for my LOI 19dn “Tati”. I had heard of him, but just couldn’t see it.
FOI – 1ac “Dais”
LOI – 19dn “Tati”
COD – 21ac “In Limbo”
Thanks as usual!
Slow here too though I assumed that it was because I am utterly knackered after a day chasing my sons around the Alps. Now I sit here like a princeling as they and their girlfriends cook supper.
All done in 11:58 which still has me in the top 100 on the leaderboard, showing how tough this was.
Many thanks Jack and Breaders.
Templar
toughish needing some biffing.
still getting back in practice
Just too difficult for me. I gave up after 57 minutes, having found only cUbIsT and pUrIsT to fit _U_I_T, and having guessed CHINTy for CHINTZ. I did piece together CREPUSCULAR, although I had no idea what it meant, and I did get TATI, despite never having heard of him. Those four clues, only two of which were actually solved, took me more than half an hour.
I am now officially worried about my diminishing crosswording skills (not that they ever really existed), as my records now show 4 DNFs in the last 10 days (and 8 in the past very few weeks). It feels like I have regressed by a year or more.
Many thanks to Breadman and Jack.
Don’t despair. You’ve also had some very quick times recently and I have been feeling that you and L-Plates are making real progress. I had a bad time last week, whereas today it just clicked, showing that we are all susceptible to peaks and troughs. I think some of your DNFs were near misses, which is frustrating but not insurmountable. I am absolutely certain that you remain on an upwards curve and that this is just a minor setback.
Thankyou for your encouragement, Mr A. I always start every new QC with hope, so roll on tomorrow.
Second letter U should always prompt a Q – says he who also forgot this rule. . .
Glad there is now a USCC! (Ultra slowcoach club). But didnt even achieve that today as beaten by the obscure / NHO CREPUSCULAR (which also seems to have a dodgy definition from comments above). Also very glad my wife knows words like CHINTZ and TOPER (no, not me!)
Late start and later finish, hello SCC, and never did see DIPSTICK.
Felt hard to me.
For some bizarre reason, I found this very doable. Perhaps I was just on our setter’s wavelength today. Managed over half on the first pass and, although a few were tricky, I avoided the SCC by 4 minutes. It helped that I knew TATI and CREPUSCULAR, and saw the long anagrams straight away (a rarity for me). Worked out 11ac from the literal and had enough crossers to work out the ones that initially proved elusive. As a David Jason fan, DIPSTICK made me smile.
The awfully self-important Manc goalie must be Peter Schmeichel!
A happy Monday for a change.
Thanks for the entertaining and informative blog.
Who can forget the great headline after Peter retired … “Keegan fills Schmeichel’s gap with Seaman”
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Late entry for me and found it hard going in places with SHUTTLECOCK, CHINTZ and TRIBUTE BAND causing a long delay at the end.
Crossed the line in 12.31 with COD to DIPSTICK
Thanks to Jack and Breadman for a quality puzzle
If it’s possible, I’d say that was slow (24mins) but not hard. Everything was parseable once it went in but usually needed checkers to figure it out.
Admittedly I did end up with 3rd DNF of the month (put PAPI midsolve when I was despairing and I do know of TATI – Monsieur Hulot’s Holday I believe). All three have been correctable so that is the solace I will take.
Didn’t care much for OPINE, partly because of the def and secondly because with PIN being short for “Personal Identification Number”, it felt weird to have it clued as “Identification Number”.
The most difficult QC I have ever seen . Solved 8 clues then gave up in despair. Way beyond my capabilties.
RIP Mary Quant (11/2/1930-13/4/2023) aged 93, peacefully at home in Surrey.