Hi all. Not an easy Monday for me: I slipped just outside my usual time range. I enjoyed it though, particularly 10a, 18a and 7d. Thanks Pedro!
Definitions are underlined in the clues below. In the explanations, most quoted indicators are in italics, specified [deletions] are in square brackets, 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 | Monetary incentive remains after Conservative support (8) |
| CASHBACK — ASH (remains) after C (Conservative) + BACK (support) | |
| 5a | Uninteresting apartment (4) |
| FLAT — Double definition | |
| 8a | Certain to engage in indulgence over varied valuable items (8-5) |
| TREASURE-TROVE — SURE (certain) inside (to engage in) TREAT (indulgence) + an anagram of (… varied) OVER | |
| 10a | Italian food not found in opening section of dictionary? (5) |
| PASTA — If something is PAST A in the dictionary it’s not in the opening section | |
| 11a | Finished with the military, missing last of many such deliveries? (7) |
| OVERARM — OVER (finished) + ARM[y] (the military) without (missing) the last of manY | |
| 12a | Chap backed place for insect (6) |
| MANTIS — MAN (chap) + reversed (backed) SIT (place) | |
| 13a | Answer framed by King when in US state (6) |
| KANSAS — ANS (answer) surrounded by (framed by) K (King) and AS (when) | |
| 16a | Settling most of new police trap (7) |
| NESTING — All but the last letter of (most of) NEw + STING (police trap) | |
| 18a | Delete Times article, ultimately (5) |
| ERASE — ERAS (times) + the last letter of (… ultimately) articlE | |
| 20a | Sent Gibraltar wild with intimidating display (5-8) |
| SABRE-RATTLING — SENT GIBRALTAR anagrammed (wild) | |
| 21a | Try and restore evacuated part of car (4) |
| TYRE — TrY and RestorE having had the contents removed (evacuated) | |
| 22a | Barrier of stakes, very common, created without front (8) |
| STOCKADE — STOCK (very common, as in a stock phrase) + mADE (created) without the first letter (front) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | TUC, as it were, to be deeply distressed (3,2) |
| CUT UP — An inverse clue, not something frequently seen in these parts: CUT reversed (UP) would give TUC, so TUC “as it were.” | |
| Other indications of this kind of clue might be “what could give …” or even a simple question mark (which I probably wouldn’t expect in a QC, as question marks can indicate so many things) | |
| 2d | Restore young fellow’s hat (7) |
| STETSON — STET (restore – in editing, to restore after marking for deletion) + SON (young fellow) | |
| 3d | Part of Indian meal — it is macabre when cooked (7,4) |
| BASMATI RICE — IT IS MACABRE when anagrammed (cooked) | |
| 4d | Vehicle bowled on, a contributor to emissions? (6) |
| CARBON — CAR (vehicle) + B (bowled, cricketing abbreviation) + ON | |
| 6d | Idiot overturned article, something used in bathroom (5) |
| LOOFA — FOOL (idiot) reversed (overturned) + A (article). | |
| I’ve seen heated debates on crossword blogs when loofah has been defined as sponge. Pedro has deftly avoided that here, at the expense of a broader definition | |
| 7d | Drink container hogged by father mostly (7) |
| THERMOS — The answer is in (hogged by) faTHER MOStly | |
| 9d | Offering restoration in article on treatment of a picture (11) |
| THERAPEUTIC — THE (article) on an anagram (treatment) of A PICTURE | |
| 12d | Way of thinking is concerned about alien (4-3) |
| MIND-SET — MINDS (is concerned about) + ET (alien) | |
| 14d | Produces cartoons without energy, needing upturn in sustained energy (7) |
| STAMINA — ANIMAT[e]S (produces cartoons) without E (energy), needing a reversal (upturn) | |
| 15d | Silver has a trace of tarnish? Horrified (6) |
| AGHAST — AG (silver) + HAS + the first letter of (a trace of) Tarnish | |
| 17d | Dignified expression of unhappiness regarding upset (5) |
| SOBER — SOB (expression of unhappiness) + RE (regarding) reversed (upset) | |
| 19d | Dog ignoring first good hole (5) |
| EAGLE — bEAGLE (dog) without (ignoring) its first letter | |
Came home in 19.39 only to find a pink square for KANSus. I can only think I saw the ‘US’ in the clue and wrote it straight in. Given the struggles I had with SABRE RATTLING, MANTIS and STETSON and how pleased I was to get them I’m particular upset to have been undone by pure dimness. Enjoyed it. Hard but fun.
Only just achieved my extended target of 15 minutes. I got myself stuck on a bunch of intersecting answers: THERAPEUTIC, ERASE, STAMINA and EAGLE.
Ran out of enthusiasm in the SE with ERASE, STAMINA and EAGLE outstanding, wasn’t anywhere near them and thought some of the others were tough for a quickie. Thanks Kitty and Pedro.
I also found this tricky, taking 14 minutes. Other than general slowness, my specific hold-ups were parsing STAMINA (biffed but did not see how the clue worked; the need to find a word, remove a letter and then reverse it was one step too far for a Monday morning) and OVERARM (wordplay very clear but definition “such deliveries” somewhat vague and weak IMO). As for LOOFA, I’ve not seen it spelt without an H on the end, nor it seems has Kitty (or her spellchecker) as in the blog it is written as Loofah.
Many thanks Kitty for the blog
Cedric
Oops, didn’t notice that. Yes, the -h spelling is what I’d naturally use but I’ve seen both in the wild. Not “luffa” though, which is another option in Chambers.
Slower than my target, as usual it would seem. Biffed THERAPEUTIC, TREASURE-TROVE, & STAMINA, parsed post-submission. 7:09.
15 mins…
Early start for me as I’m going away. Overall, I found this a reasonable start to the week, with nothing too testing. Main hold up was nearly putting “Sobre” instead of “Sober” for 17dn, but 21ac “Tyre” meant the latter could be the only answer.
FOI – 1dn “Cut Up”
LOI – 14dn “Stamina”
COD – 1ac “Cashback” – nice word play.
Thanks as usual!
Tricky going in places – particularly the SE (EAGLE, STOCKADE, THERAPEUTIC and LOI STAMINA)- but not helped by some general doziness.
With STAMINA I kept thinking of ‘animates’ but completely missed/overlooked/ignored the reversal instruction, leading to a lot head scratching and eventually an almighty ‘doh’.
A couple of cracking anagrams today for BASMATI RICE and COD SABRE RATTLING.
Finished in 9.27.
Thanks to Kitty and Pedro
I could see clues that would trouble less experienced solvers – for instance I can’t remember when I last encountered SABRE-RATTLING anywhere but in Crosswordland, and that some time ago – but I settled this in two passes through the clues. Thanks Pedro, and Kitty.
FOI FLAT
LOI EAGLE
COD CASHBACK
TIME 4:23
Finished in 9:08, thought there were some good clues today
Really enjoyed the basmati rice and sabre rattling anagrams. Took me nearly twice as long as average but cannot really see why. Thanks for blog. I had biffed stamina and needed explanation.
A long slow 19:43 today. FOI FLAT. Held up at the end by SABRE-RATTLING and two of its crossers SOBER and STAMINA (which I never did parse). COD CASHBACK
Needed Kitty’s help to parse CUT UP. Never seen loofah spelt without the final h, but obvious from the clue. COD CASHBACK. Thanks Kitty and Pedro.
DNF. Clock ran out on trying to unpack STAMINA. Spent an age on SABRE RATTLING as well. Hard yards today.
Finished all correct but very slow. Difficult, I thought, and biffed quite a few, eg THERAPEUTIC.
FOI OVERARM, LOI MANTIS. In a senior moment, I could visualise the sinister insect before I could produce its name from the back of my memory.
Liked SABRE RATTLING, THERMOS, EAGLE, MINDSET, COD STETSON.
Thanks vm, Kitty.
V good puzzle, if a bit on the hard side again.
Excellent anagrams for BASMATI RICE & SABRE RATTLING. KANSAS LOI.
6:40
Not a gentle start to the week! Managed to submit bang on my target time but it was a close run thing. CUT UP was FOI. Liked BASMATI RICE (who doesn’t!), SABRE RATTLING and THERAPEUTIC. NESTING was LOI. 10:00. Thanks Pedro and Kitty.
8:11
LOI STAMINA bunged in from checkers – could not see parsing. Took a while to see THERAPEUTIC and needed to write out the letters for SABRE-RATTLING – otherwise a robust Monday morning workout.
Thanks Kitty and Pedro
14 minutes for me with quite a bit of that on LOI STAMINA- not parsed at the time. Thanks Kitty.
I liked the Basmati anagram but COD to CASHBACK.
Some challenging clues.
David
14:26
I only managed two of the across clues on first pass, but the downs went in more easily.
LOI was NESTING, since “trap” seemed enough for “sting”, so I could not work out what “new police” meant.
Needed pen and paper to unravel SABRE RATTLING.
Thanks Kitty and Pedro
11:31
Fun puzzle.
Thanks, K.
Enjoyable. Slight hold-ups solving EAGLE, MIND-SET and LOI SOBER – in retrospect can’t think why. Biffed then parsed STAMINA. Liked CUT UP as I saw what was going on straight away (which I wouldn’t have done this time last year). Many thanks kitty and Pedro.
A very tough start to the week, and I began to wonder at one time if I’d finish. I eventually crossed the line in 19.48 which was an unhappy reminder of the year of my birth. I was held up just about everywhere, with very few solved at the first pass. All the long anagrams in particular took me a while to sort out. Still, I got there in the end, although I suspect there will be a fair few DNFs.
Pulled stumps at my 30min cut off, with Stamina, Erase and Eagle extant. I think any one would have prompted the other two, but just couldn’t see any of them – looking for a dog breed with gg in the name certainly didn’t help, but really should have got Erase. I hope the rest of the week goes a little easier. CoD to 1d, Cut Up, for the pdm. Invariant
20:53
Not helped by being unable to spell THERAPEUTIC and struggled with KANSAS and LOI STAMINA taking me over my 20 minute target.
Held up by trying to biff palisade ….
Tough today; pushed well over target at 11:25. The cluing style seemed rather long and clunky – 14d a particular culprit. COD to CASHBACK (which I couldn’t get in the Co-op in Ballachulish because I didn’t have my plastic card with me – apparently you can’t have cashback using a phone. Fortunately the fish van was happy to trust me to pay another day!).
Many thanks Pedro and Kitty.
Finished correctly in one hour and five minutes.
Very tough one, I thought.
9.59
A second different to one of my comparison solvers (John D) so I’ll take that as par. The answers weren’t necessarily hard but they certainly (for me) needed a bit of stopping and thinking. A good workout. Thanks Kitty and Pedro
DNF. A bit too hard for me today – 4 unsolved or wrong. Oh dear.
6:27. A bit slow in seeing the long answers, needing checkers in place. LOI STAMINA. I liked ERASE and AGHAST. Thanks Pedro and Kitty.
I found this hard too. Seems like last week’s challenging period hasn’t finished yet, and I start this week firmly in the SCC with 24:21.
Thank you for the blog!
POI 19d (b)Eagle is a VERY good hole I’ld say. I don’t like golf but I think it’s 2 under par?
LOI was Kansas, with a very big Doh! when I saw how easy it is if you look at it the right way.
Nice steady solve with some biffing along the way.
FOI FLAT
LOI SABRE RATTLING. Not helped by writing out Gibraltar with an ER at the end.
COD STAMINA but amused by PASTA when the penny finally dropped.
Thanks Pedro and Kitty.
Excellent puzzle. The cluing style didn’t lend itself to Monday-itis, but what does?!
Thanks Kitty & Pedro
13:09
Finished on stamina and stockade. Had sterson so my typing hasn’t improved from being away.
COD pasta.
Slow but complete, with several biffed and then a long pause trying to parse: THERAPEUTIC and STAMINA particularly. The long anagrams were tricky to do in my head, but worth the effort.
Two sittings for a slow steady solve. This was hard but fair with nothing too obscure for me!
Thanks Kitty and Pedro
I’m a LOOFAH man, rather than LOOFA, I found this tricky today, took ages to get going, so lost a bit of interest after a while.maybe a QC should be taken as an achievable goal for mid range solvers, or it starts to lose the point.
12/24. Happy with that, as it was a tough one.
A very slow start, only getting 2 or 3 of the across clues on first pass. I’m pleased to say things speeded up after that and I eventually finished in 21 minutes. Couldn’t parse TREASURE TROVE or STAMINA (thanks Kitty). I’m not entirely sure why this seemed so tricky in retrospect – hindsight is an exact science.
FOI – 5ac FLAT
LOI – 21ac TYRE
COD – 10ac PASTA
Thanks to Pedro and Kitty
Made a flying start but midway through it all slowed up and the long anagrams (great test) took me towards the SCC. I suppose sabre rattling is intended as an intimidating display but normal usage today tends to be dismissive, ie “it’s merely sabre rattling”. Agree that an Eagle on the golf course is MUCH more than a good hole: for me it would be a MIRACLE (or a fluke). Anyway, all done while knocking at the door: 19.50…. Thanks Pedro for a fun workout and Kitty for an excellent blog.
Made a flying start but midway through it all slowed up and the long anagrams (great test) took me towards the SCC. I suppose sabre rattling is intended as an intimidating display but normal usage today tends to be dismissive, ie “it’s merely sabre rattling”. Agree that an Eagle on the golf course is MUCH more than a good hole: for me it would be a MIRACLE (or a fluke). Anyway, all done while knocking at the door: 19.50…. Thanks Pedro for a fun workout and Kitty for an excellent blog. Fun start to the week.
31:24 with no errors. FOI FLAT, LOI STAMINA, COD PASTA after PDM. More than double my target time today, held up by some of the longer clues. Stared at S_A_I_A for quite a while before deciding that stamina was the only word I could think of that fit “sustained energy” (needed the blog to parse the wordplay). Thanks Pedro and Kitty.
I’m late because I didn’t do this one on Sunday night, being preoccupied with my own blog. I did not find it as hard as some, although I took a short-cut by biffing treasure trove and sabre-rattling, giving me a lot of crossing letters. I entirely overlooked the clever definition for eagle, too, after spending all day watching the Fedex St Jude – not many eagles there.
Time: 8:03
13:54. Many great clues- CUT UP, PASTA, TREASURE TROVE, THERAPEUTIC and STAMINA especially stood out for me.
Defeated by Therapeutic, despite having all the crossers. Biffed many of the long clues quickly which helped with some of the tricky ones. Thanks Kitty and Pedro
14.43 This was quite tough. I was slow to unravel BASMATI RICE and SABRE-RATTLING, and finished with NESTING. STAMINA was nice. LOOFA does look wrong. Thanks Pedro and Kitty. The title is excellent!
Glad to finish (albeit with a couple unparsed). There were times I thought it would be a DNF but got there eventually. Hard but fair with nothing obscure (for me).
Hhmm. Not very good for me. Lots of clues I couldn’t get. And quite a few I did get right I didn’t understand why. So all in all difficult.
Looking at the snitch, the QC is definitely getting harder. 5 out of the last 7 weeks have an average score of over 100, which hasn’t happened since it started – and the first QC of this week is 105 as well. I wonder if this is intentional or just reflects inexperienced editing?