Hi everyone. My second Teazel blog in a row, but I’m not complaining. Timewise I fared better today, taking 30s under par. After a flying start in the NW I slowed down, then finished with a long hesitation and fingers crossed over 8a. Enjoyable as ever – thanks Teazel.
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, quoted indicators are in italics and I’ve capitalised and emboldened letters which appear in the ANSWER. For clarity, I omit most link words and some juxtaposition indicators.
| Across | |
| 1a | Advertising professional with formal proposal (9) |
| PROMOTION — PRO (professional) + MOTION (formal proposal) | |
| 6a | Very quiet concession (3) |
| SOP — SO (very) + P (quiet) | |
| 8a | In front of us is Nurse Bell (7) |
| ANGELUS — In front of US is ANGEL (nurse) The bell rung to signal the time for angelus, a short RC prayer recited three times daily. It took me until after completion to remember angel is a term for a nurse; I somehow managed to get this from the definition without knowingly knowing it. Cryptics can summon things from places in my brain I can’t readily access any other way! |
|
| 9a | Very sick at a holiday home (5) |
| VILLA — V (very) + ILL (sick) + A | |
| 10a | Secret motive in handing a deed out (6,6) |
| HIDDEN AGENDA — An anagram of (… out) HANDING A DEED | |
| 12a | After dance noticed activity in assembly room? (6) |
| JIGSAW — After JIG (dance) we have SAW (noticed) | |
| 13a | Not liable to change where horses are kept (6) |
| STABLE — A double definition | |
| 16a | Sort of drug spreading Italian alarm (12) |
| ANTIMALARIAL — An anagram of (spreading) ITALIAN ALARM | |
| 19a | Statuette showing no blemish? (5) |
| OSCAR — O SCAR (no blemish?) | |
| 20a | Work on paper — wrong bit used (7) |
| SUBEDIT — An anagram of (wrong) BIT USED | |
| 22a | A nervous throw? (3) |
| SHY — A kind of cryptic definition, but I’d prefer to call it a precise definition, “throw”, with a second indication embedded which plays on nervous/shy. Or I could be overcomplicating things: without the A it would just be a simple double definition | |
| 23a | Success with race leading to sort of accident (3-3-3) |
| HIT-AND-RUN — HIT (success) + AND (with) + RUN (race) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Aircraft’s unfinished chart (4) |
| PLAN — PLANe (aircraft) is unfinished, i.e. missing its last letter | |
| 2d | Working, leaving? Continuing (7) |
| ONGOING — ON (working) + GOING (leaving) | |
| 3d | Bird initially over western lake (3) |
| OWL — The first letters of (initially) Over Western Lake | |
| 4d | Foolish to hold son mad (6) |
| INSANE — INANE (foolish) containing (to hold) S (son) | |
| 5d | Cockpit colleague perhaps good to introduce to new airman (9) |
| NAVIGATOR — G (good) inserted into (to introduce to) N (new) and AVIATOR (airman) | |
| 6d | Sister at first by herself almost in the hairdresser’s? (5) |
| SALON — The initial letter of (… at first) Sister + ALONe (by herself) without the last letter (almost) | |
| 7d | Calm down situation — a time to intervene (7) |
| PLACATE — PLACE (situation) with the insertion of (… to intervene) A and T (time) | |
| 11d | Solemn procession when no sign of an early spring? (4,5) |
| DEAD MARCH — If nothing is growing in March it doesn’t look like Spring is coming early | |
| 12d | Envious of ale drunk in short tournament (7) |
| JEALOUS — An anagram of (… drunk) ALE in all but the last letter of (short) JOUSt (tournament) | |
| 14d | One getting on train — and staying at school? (7) |
| BOARDER — Two definitions, slightly entwined, the second really “one staying at school?” | |
| 15d | Private room nearby, at end of street (6) |
| CLOSET — CLOSE (nearby) next to (at) the last letter of (end of) streeT | |
| 17d | A little sticky, and in bad taste (5) |
| TACKY — A double definition | |
| 18d | KO — crazy to get up (4) |
| STUN — NUTS (crazy) needs to be reversed (to get up) | |
| 21d | Throw away wine stored here (3) |
| BIN — A final double definition | |
No problems here. 4:32.
10:46. Enjoyed JEALOUS, NAVIGATOR, and ONGOING the most. Not sure what the role of “room” is in the definition for JIGSAW.
a room where one assembles, jigsaw puzzles in this case
I wasn’t really on the wavelength, as I struggled with the two long ones, and had to write down the anagram letters for antimalarial. There were some easy ones, but it took all the crossers to get navigatory. I did have a lot of doubts about dead march – I would say death march, but I finally submitted. I was a bit annoyed to be under 10 minutes and still last on the leaderboard.
Time: 8:51.
The Bataan Death March, the Dead March in Saul.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQ9lz1fDkug
Reginald Wilfer likens living with his wife to going through life to the Dead March (Our Mutual Friend).
We beat the drum slowly and played the fife lowly,
Played the dead march as we carried him along.
Down in the green valley, laid the sod o’er him.
He was a young cowboy and he said he’d done wrong.
—“Streets of Laredo”
In these examples the dead march is a piece of music, not a solemn procession. Though I’m probably being picky because I got this one wrong.
Just over 10 minutes. Exactly the same thoughts as vinyl1 about DEAD MARCH; I toyed with the idea of a “drab” MARCH but it looked too odd. I also agree with curryowen about the JIGSAW def. NAVIGATOR was last in after trying to make “George” fit in somehow. The BOARDER double def / sort of cryptic def was my favourite.
ANGELUS went in with the help of a few crossers. Only knowing the word from crosswords, I thought it was specific bell or type of bell, but now see it’s the peal of bells rung nine times as a call to prayer, three times a day; my new fact for the day.
Thanks to Teazel and Kitty
According to a priest at Our Lady of Lebanon (Maronite) Cathedral, right outside my window—the padre used to go to my favorite neighborhood restau, now closed—it is the angelus that is rung every weekday morning at 10, and functions as my alarm clock, at least when I’m not sleeping on my working ear. The definition may vary according to sect.
The Sherlock in me leads me to deduce that you live in Brooklyn?
Indeed. Montague Street, Brooklyn Heights, since December 12, 1992.
Is that the Montague Street from Tangled Up In Blue? Or do locals claim it is anyway?
According to the Montague Street Business Improvement District, it’s this very street. I’ve always harbored some doubt that this is the drag Dylan was singing about, though. Brooklyn Heights has historically been the home to many literary lions (Thomas Wolfe, W.H. Auden, Henry Miller, Truman Capote…), and during my long years here, there has intermittently been some music in a café or two, but “revolution in the air”? Yet I’ve read that Dylan knew some people on this street during his early New York years and stayed with them a while. His memories of the time were possibly jumbled in with those of other cafés, in other neighborhoods.
Fascinating, thank you Guy. We all know Dylan is perfectly capable of plucking a name out of anywhere because the syllabic structure and the feel of it suit his purposes (eg Alicia Keyes), but he also seems drawn to referencing actual places when it fits. When you say ‘possibly jumbled in with’ I’d agree whole-heartedly, jumbling is what Bob does and he has no qualms about jumbling his own memories and experiences with those he’s stolen from other people. Also I’m guessing you could say there were times in America in the 60s when revolution was in the air, even if just figuratively!
18:20 (1820 Last judicial decapitation in the United Kingdom)
Slow, but a good few minutes spent on DEAD MARCH. My first effort, SLOW MARCH fitted both definitions better. Spent a long time considering other options, before submitting. Just about the only example is from Handel’s Saul.
There’s an obit in todays paper from a young Aviator who survived a Death March across Germany in 1945 where thousands of British died.
ANGELUS dredged from memory banks somehow.
Off to a bad start by trying to see how {P}Lane could equal “chart”…
COD OSCAR
8 minutes. I looked twice at DEAD MARCH, not wondering about ‘dead’ rather than ‘death’, but because I simply failed to understand the ‘early spring’ reference – no idea now why.
A good start to the week for me with a rare sub-15 minutes (by just 1 second). I took far too long to spot the anagrist for SUBEDIT but once that was in BIN, another surprisingly elusive one, quickly followed and I was all green.
I liked DEAD MARCH, did not understand JIGSAW and was chuffed that I saw ANTIMALARIAL very quickly. (I did once live in East Africa so was at a slight advantage here.)
My favourite clues were PLACATE and HIDDEN AGENDA.
Thanks to Teazel and Kitty.
That’s odd; I could have sworn I posted an uninteresting comment on how I did. Anyway, I biffed HIDDEN AGENDA without checking to see if the anagrist was there. Not a wise idea, but. 5:28.
That’s odd. I think you did. I think I saw it. Then it was gone.
Thanks for confirming that. Now I know Johninterred is gaslighting me.
Not me, guv! In the past I’ve fallen for the trap of the unusual positioning of the buttons on the comment edit screen and accidentally clicked “Delete”, but maybe you are right and there is some conspiracy going on.
If someone had deleted it, John, it would be in the deleted bin, which currently has 25 items and has not been emptied since the middle of June. So it could be a glitch, or maybe Kevin misremembers.
I also checked the spam bin, it’s not there either.
All done in 6.38, so no major hold-ups. Like others unsure about DEAD MARCH and also JIGSAW in terms of definition, given that a jigsaw is a type of saw and a jigsaw puzzle is, I suppose, made with one. But no biggie, enjoyable puzzle and useful blog.
On trend at 32m. NHO ANGELUS, but the rest were fair enough, I guess. I thought SHY was a double definition as in nervous, and then shy like a coconut shy, where balls are thrown at coconuts. Anyway, I got there my way.
Thanks Kitty & Teazel.
Hi Snail (I like your name and profile pic). Yes, you are right to identify two definitions in SHY. But I feel the need to account for the A in the clue. I’ve added a comment above.
Just over 10 minutes for this enjoyable puzzle. No real holdups, though like others Angelus was dragged from deep memory – not a word I use in everyday conversation. Antimalarial a tough anagram and was my LOI but by then I had all the checkers and it fell into place nicely.
Many thanks to Kitty for the blog. In clue 9A though I think you might have underlined the A in “a holiday home” wrongly; it is not part of the definition but the last component of the wordplay (V + ILL + A).
Cedric
Oops, thanks Cedric – blog updated.
Steady going today. Like some others I hesitated over the first part of DEAD MARCH so left that until the end and particularly enjoyed JIGSAW for the PDM and OSCAR.
Finished in 8.11 having started with PLAN.
Thanks to Kitty
8’11” but DRAB instead of DEAD MARCH slowed me down and tripped me up. Heard of “Death March” and so should have got it so disappointing to miss a sub 8’ all clear.
Thanks Teazel and Kitty
I found this a pleasant start to the week. Particularly liked angelus and hidden agenda. 20a was my LOI, annoying as I am a retired subeditor.
Greetings fellow Sneaky Clue Connoisseurs – I was nearly looking in from outside today, but SUBEDIT and JIGSAW (hmm to that definition although the clue got me there) lured me in.
Tried doing the Downs first today, which felt very weird! Well, it’s a Monday, get the week off to a different start. Generally no major problems or great joys, but a nice puzzle to stroll through with coffee.
CBA to check the anagrist, put in ANTIMALARIAN, froze in horror as the DPS appeared. Welcome to Monday.
Quite twisty turny and I was slow to get going, but went much faster as it went on. I liked NAVIGATOR and ANGELUS. 07:49 but WOE and a Bad Day.
Many thanks Kitty and Teazel.
Templar
Held up by an initial BOW, hastily corrected to OWL and SLOW MARCH, which was only fixed when I saw HIDDEN AGENDA…. but not by much, finishing in an average 5:29. COD to SHY. Thanks Teazel and Kitty. P.S. Kitty you have a typo at 9A where the A is part of the wordplay not the definition.
Thanks John. Corrected.
Sorry. I missed Cedric had already said that.
I had Bow too, not so hastily corrected to OWL sadly. Took me far too long
I had Bow as well – it parses from the cryptic, and there are many Bow Lakes, many formed from Oxbows. Seemed reasonable at the time.
Yes. That was my thought at the time, but it seemed a bit oblique for a QC definition.
I convinced myself that lakes formed from an oxbow were called “bow” lakes, which turned out not to be true.
In the States, at about 13 years of age, you usually (or used to usually) read The Ox-bow Incident, and also The Occurance at Owl Creek Bridge. Which doesn’t exactly explain my wrong thinking here, but does connect the two answers
All green in an hour; thanks, Teazel, for a nice friendly puzzle. FOI VILLA, LOI ANGELUS; not sure there’s a COD to be awarded? Agree with Snail that SHY is surely “like a coconut shy, where balls are thrown at coconuts”.
I whipped through this one (on my time scale, at least) finishing just a couple of seconds over 10 mins, all parsed (and well under 2K). Any minor problems were resolved later in my solve when crossers were available.
I liked ANTIMALARIAL (and checked the anagrist without recourse to paper) but ANGELUS was my COD.
A good to start the week with a genuine QC so thanks to Teazel for a very good puzzle and to Kitty for a good blog. John M.
For once I was not unduly exercised by M.Teazel!
JIGSAW, JEALOUS and OSCAR were the last three in, feeding off each other as it were. I liked both OSCAR and ANGELUS.
5:53
15:03 (James IV of Scotland marries Margaret Tudor)
A slow but steady solve. My LOI was JIGSAW. I could not make sense of the “room” in the clue, until I remembered the works of Richard Osman, where the meetings of the Thursday Murder Club always take place in “the jigsaw room”.
Thanks Teazel and Kitty
15 mins…but dnf as I put “Dragmarch” for 11dn (the logic being you’re “dragging” out winter). I wasn’t happy with it, but “Deadmarch” didn’t sound right either. As a few comments have noted above, I would say “Deathmarch”.
That aside, I enjoyed the rest and thought it was fairly reasonable.
FOI – 1dn “Plan”
LOI – 11dn “Dragmarch” (incorrect)
COD – 12ac “Jigsaw”
Thanks as usual!
Finished quickly, all parsed, but most answers did not go in at the first look. Just what a QC should be. FOI VILLA, LOI STUN, COD OSCAR,. Tickled rather than Teazed. Thanks Teazel and Kitty.
Enjoyable QC. Not that quick but finished in one go. Bit dim in NW until I got a PROMOTION PDM, ditto ANGELUS. Liked OSCAR, CLOSET, SOP, BIN, among others. Thanks vm, Kitty.
12:37 Treaty of York signed between kings Henry III of England and Alexander II of Scotland which establishes a boundary between the two countries (mostly unchanged in modern times).
It’s not often that I have a time “in the past” so this was on opportunity to find a historical moment! After failing to see any answers in the first minute, I suddenly got on the wavelength and then, for me, continued at a pretty pace (pedestrian by some standards, I know). LOI was SOP, which should have come sooner but eluded me until I had the P, having been thinking along SH lines for quiet. COD probably JEALOUS. No doubt I shall fall back to earth tomorrow but I am enjoying my Icarus moment. Thanks Teazel and Kitty.
Just inside 12 minutes for me and happy with that. Slowed by the unfamiliar DEAD MARCH and ANGELUS, FOI was PROMOTION giving a good start. I think I liked BOARDER best, but there are other very good clues here. Thanks Teazel and Kitty.
Started a little slowly but eventually built up speed to finish within target at 9.25. OPPRESS flashed into my mind for 20ac but I fortunately decided to parse it properly rather than biff inaccurately. A nice puzzle to start the week.
15 minutes pausing at the end to wonder whether DEAD MARCH could be correct. I could think of nothing better. Others have commented above; add me to the list.
Some good clues and I enjoyed the puzzle. COD to JIGSAW.
David
Quick 18 minutes for us
NW our LOI
Liked ongoing triple definition
15 minutes all parsed. A steady solve with hesitation over JIGSAW (soon resolved by cracking 12dn) and DEAD MARCH. Needed a fair few crossers for the two long anagrams which also slowed me slightly. A most enjoyable quarter of an hour.
FOI – 1ac PROMOTION
LOI – 11dn DEAD MARCH
COD – 19ac OSCAR, the subtlety of which passed me by until I read Kitty’s blog
Thanks to Teazel and to Kitty
7:43
Not confident with DEAD MARCH and ANGELUS perhaps better suited to the 15×15. Had to write out the letters of ANTIMALARIAL. Slow to finish in the NW with PROMOTION and PLAN.
Thanks Teazel and Kitty
6:51, but sadly when I entered UBEDI to complete 20a, the B didn’t register and I ended up with 4 pink squares and 3 errors for SUEDITT. Drat! Thanks Teazel and Kitty.
Ouch!
Surprisingly straightforward for a Teazle puzzle. A good start to the week!
7.12
Average sort of time for me
Liked JIGSAW
Thanks Kitty and Teazel
All done in 20. Remembered Angela’s from my Catholic upbringing. NHO dead March. Oscar was a biff. Still don’t understand it having read blog three times. J
double definition. The Oscar films awards are in the form of statuettes. Zero=O blemish=scar.
Thanks for the explanation. I couldn’t see it either but now I do.
As I’m a bit of a sad oenophile, Angelus was a write-in for me, from the bell on the label of Ch. Angelus, a St Emilion.
Not sad if you can afford Chateau Angelus! I am a Left Bank fan -more fine wines in my price range (and I prefer Cabernet).
I knew Angelus from the piece by Franz Liszt. John.
After a quick read through without much immediate success, started at the bottom and worked slowly upwards.
NHO ANGELUS, wiser now, guessed DEAD.
For some reason, annoyingly, I have to log in manually here each time on my phone although the fields are remembered. No doubt there is a simple explanation.
Thanks Kitty
An unusual and welcome sub 30m today.
No problem with ANGELUS but SOP took a while despite there being only four options. What a sap.
Thanks to Teazel for a nice start to the week and Kitty for explaining HIT AND RUN.
About 13m.
Needed an alpha trawl for d_a_ march, to see if there was anything better than dead.
Monday morning drowsiness apparent as I didn’t parse oscar!
Dnk angelus.
Nice puzzle.
COD oscar.
All done and dusted in 20 minutes, so just on the threshold of the SCC and very pleased indeed, given that it was a Teazel.
On my first pass, the first four across clues made no sense to me. I saw the fifth was a long anagram, but couldn’t work it out at that stage, so I was expecting a long haul today. However, JIGSAW and STABLE set the ball rolling, and I was then much heartened to see ANTIMALARIAL without having any checkers. My CoD was ONGOING, for its clever and quite amusing wordplay.
Many thanks to Teazel and Kitty.
👏👏👏
7.19 DNF. I thought of DEAD MARCH but it didn’t sound like a procession so I plumped for DRAB MARCH. Which seems quite unlikely in hindsight. Apart from that I was very much on the wavelength today making for an entertaining puzzle. Thanks to Kitty and Teazel.
What an enjoyable and well balanced puzzle! I have been getting up to speed for a year or so on the QC and have been very encouraged by the TFTT community along the way, thank you all!. Completed today in 22 minutes so felt able to share my time.
I too went with Slow March until forced to rethink the opening letter. Tricky anagram at 16a took all the crossers and then some unravelling. Slow too on Subedit until I had all the crossers.
FOI 1a Promotion
LOI 20a Subedit
COD 8a Angelus, just unusual word for me to recall.
All done under target in 13:19, which I’m pleased with after a slow start. COD JIGSAW: I’m oddly amused by the idea it sparked in my mind of a country house having an “assembly room” dedicated to jigsaw puzzles. Probably just me…
It seemed to be a slow start to this one, which I put down to the after effects of a days drive across the back roads of South Wales. However a bit of dodging around the grid and I’d suddenly only got a couple of clues left. Took a while to see OWL as I wanted to put BOW in there. A mental slap around the back of the head when I finally saw it and it helped to get the last two, PROMOTION and PLAN.
DEAD MARCH and JIGSAW both went in with a bit of a shrug, I thought they were fairly weak clues in what was otherwise an enjoyable puzzle.
Thanks to Teazel and Kitty.
A slow march through the quickie today, as I have been introducing MrB to the joys of cryptic crosswords. I had a cataract op this morning and can’t see too well, so we decided to do this together, with him reading out and writing in! I guess it would have taken me about my usual time under normal circs but it was about 50 minutes today. It brought home to me how long you all must spend on writing up the blogs, so an extra big thank you goes out today.
I thought this was a lovely example of the setter’s art – a good mix of clue types, with some nice easy ones for confidence boosting and a few more challenging which were enjoyable to solve (with a bit of wifely prompting!) As I’ve often found Teazel to be one of the trickier setters, I was pleasantly surprised that this proved to be a good introduction. MrB particularly enjoyed VILLA, JiGSAW, SUBEDIT, OWL and NAVIGATOR. TACKY made me laugh.
FOI Plan LOI Bin my COD Placate
Thanks Teazel and Kitty
Apologies for spelling mistakes – everything is in double!
Finished in 27 mins for a disappointing beginning to the week. Awful start, being unable to see 1ac or dn. NHO DEAD MARCH and really didn’t like 19ac. I initially entered MODEL, which I thought a passable answer.
Getting ANGELUS was a rare high point, as was INSANE. Overall however I struggled hugely to work out what was word play and what was the definition.
I’ve sent off for Don Manley’s crossword book in the hope it can get me out of my current malaise. Avoiding SCC is out of the question at present. I’m so confused that the ‘easy’ ones have stopped being straightforward because I am looking for something more complex, the – in hindsight – obvious 1dn being a good example.
Thanks for the blog Kitty.
Good luck with Izetti’s book … today’s Guardian Quiptic (free online) is one of his under the name Pasquale. Took me about 25mins. Maybe worth a look for something different.
DNF for me today … put ANGELiS … zoomed over the “us” in … “In front of us is” 🤦♂️
Thought, as PennyB says above, a generous QC in places. I can imagine Izetti putting “angelus” in a QC as it is religious and then making the clue 3x more difficult. Teazel did it right IMHO.
Bad luck today. I dredged up the Angelus blessing from the deepest recesses of my mind.
Yes, I agree it was generous. I took a while to get going and never really hit a good patch, but a very fair offering.
I’ll take a look at the Quiptic.
Can’t be long until the next Izetti appears in The Times.
Can someone with a better brain than mine parse Quintagram Clue 4 today? I’m stumped.
Onion ring I fed child – answer is apparently scallion. How do you get this from the wordplay?
Took a bit of working out …
Onion=scallion (the def)
Call = ring
I=I
Feed them into Son=child
S-CALL-I-ON
I’m struggling on 3 (Belgium city) and 5 (watch parts)
Well done! NHO SCALLION so had to look it up but just couldn’t parse it.
Spoiler alert! Not sure if you’re still grappling with the Quintagram, so I’ll put the answers to the two you mention in a separate post.
Belgian city – LIEGE
Watch parts – HANDS DOWN (groan!)
I got there in the end – about 12mins total. LIEGE popped in when I went back from here – amazing how you think you’ve got through your list of cities and then another appears.
Am I the last? Some days are like that. If not immediately straightforward, and you’re busy, finish when you can. This time with the family over supper. Don’t you love those fresh peas at present? Great quiptic, some easy to get started, some to chew over, and some unknowns or less obvious but doable with some thought.
Thanks Teazel great crossword and Kitty.
Very late to this thanks to an unexpected trip to the office. Slow start with hard acrosses but then downs flew in to let me start the week with an all green sub-9. Trusted the cryptics for ANGELUS and DEAD MARCH and counted the Ls to make sure of ANTIMALARIAL. Enjoyed SUBEDIT and JIGSAW.