Solving time: 9 minutes. I found this mostly straightforward but I was delayed by the answer at 24ac -a less than common word which in my view had an unnecessarily obscure definition for a clue in a Quick Cryptic. How did you do?
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]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Spear a fish (4) |
| PIKE | |
| Two meanings | |
| 7 | In emergency driver may use this, for a change (5,4) |
| SPARE TYRE | |
| Cryptic. Handy for our US contingent that the Y was checked. | |
| 9 | Big league of countries, initially — with common interests (4) |
| BLOC | |
| B{ig} + L{eague} + O{f} + C{ountries} [initially]. I’ve indicated the definition as all-in-one but I half expect a visit from the clue police😉 | |
| 10 | Tremor, following second white wine (10) |
| AFTERSHOCK | |
| AFTER (following), S (second), HOCK (white wine) | |
| 11 | Rise rapidly and so far heartlessly (4) |
| SOAR | |
| SO {f}AR [heartlessly] | |
| 12 | Supposed, we hear, hotel by Yorkshire river is a small one (10) |
| GUESTHOUSE | |
| Aural wordplay [we hear]: GUEST / “guessed” (supposed), H (hotel – NATO alphabet), OUSE (Yorkshire river). The definition is reflexive as indicated. | |
| 16 | Liquor salesman who avoids all duties? (10) |
| BOOTLEGGER | |
| Cryptic | |
| 19 | Fruit, but no starter, for all (4) |
| EACH | |
| {p}EACH (fruit) [but no starter] | |
| 21 | British have no charm: this is diabolical (5,5) |
| BLACK MAGIC | |
| B (British), LACK MAGIC (have no charm) | |
| 23 | Old fellow’s country (4) |
| OMAN | |
| O (old), MAN (fellow) | |
| 24 | Reader of lesson always carries gun (9) |
| EPISTOLER | |
| E’ER (always) contains [carries] PISTOL (gun). My LOI which would surely not have taken me so long had it not been for the secondary definition chosen by the setter. ‘Epistle’ meaning a letter is common enough especially in the Bible, but I’ve never before heard of EPISTOLER meaning the person who reads or chants the epistle in the Eucharistic service. ‘Letter-writer’ would have been kinder. | |
| 25 | Appreciates lodgings (4) |
| DIGS | |
| Two meanings | |
| Down |
|
| 2 | Icy home has one grand toilet (5) |
| IGLOO | |
| I (one), G (grand), LOO (toilet) | |
| 3 | Key slang for “snail” (8) |
| ESCARGOT | |
| ESC (key), ARGOT (slang) | |
| 4 | I must leave Toledo area for Englishman’s home, they say (6) |
| CASTLE | |
| CAST{i}LE (Toledo area) [I must leave]. This is with reference to the saying, ‘An Englishman’s home is his castle’. | |
| 5 | Feel sorry for rook and heron (6) |
| REGRET | |
| R (rook – chess), EGRET (heron) | |
| 6 | Story young girl lisped (4) |
| MYTH | |
| Aural wordplay [lisped]: “Miss” (young girl) | |
| 8 | Cut out PE without a sign of hesitation (6) |
| EXCISE | |
| EX{er}CISE (PE) [without a sign of hesitation] | |
| 13 | Weaken, to cut a long story short (3) |
| SAG | |
| SAG{a} (long story [cut…short] | |
| 14 | Officially noted as available to play (2,6) |
| ON RECORD | |
| I’m not sure if ‘available to play’ counts as a second definition so I’m counting it as a barely cryptic hint. | |
| 15 | Try a story, number one (6) |
| GOALIE | |
| GO (try), A, LIE (story). ‘Number one’ as worn on the top of a goalkeeper in football, I assume. | |
| 17 | Very bad feelings in university in eastern New York (6) |
| ENMITY | |
| MIT (university) contained by [in] E (eastern) + NY (New York) | |
| 18 | Look with astonishment, at this box? (6) |
| GOGGLE | |
| The main definition is supported by a cryptic referenec to ‘goggle-box’ as slang for a TV | |
| 20 | Resounding noise as family essentially argue (5) |
| CLANG | |
| CLAN (family), {ar}G{ue} [essentially] | |
| 22 | Huge nation lacking a feature (4) |
| CHIN | |
| CHIN{a} (huge nation) [lacking ‘a’] | |
7.27, no major problems, a nice puzzle. Didn’t know what was going on with GOGGLE and had to make a bold assumption about the Number 1 to get GOALIE. The wordplay allowed me to get EPISTOLER, whatever that is. Both defs of PIKE were also out of my range (we don’t have that fish here in Oz) but got there in the end. Had a laugh at MYTH, thanks Jack and Teazel.
Since this is a British puzzle, I put tyre without even thinking. It was _ I_E that alarmed me, but when I returned for a second try, it was plain as a pikestaff. Epistoler and aftershock were my last two, the checkers give them away.
Time: 7:19
I finished this but found it a little tricky in places. EPISTOLER, bit much for a quickie I thought, and GOALIE, number one in what? I knew but if you don’t know soccer…
Enjoyable. Easyish 15×15 today to have a crack at.
Thanks Jack and Teasel.
I often don’t bother with the 15×15 as I hate not finishing, so always appreciate it when it’s at the easier end. Thanks for pointing it out today.
Everyone hates not finishing. You just look at the answers or read the blog and try again another day.
When I started the occasional times I finished were a triumph. Now I get there mostly but it took a lot of work and then the help of this invaluable blog site.
Of course you’re right. I should have said I hate it when after the initial trawl, I’ve barely managed a quarter of the grid. Also I occasionally find some of answers in the 15×15 are NHO for me so it’s frustrating if I can’t get them from the wordplay. I do read the blogs regularly and they have certainly helped to improve my solving times!
You can also check the SNITCH, today is showing 66
less than 64 is “Very easy”, 64-93 “Easier”.
Finishing? Sometimes I can’t even start 😀
Same with us!!
I think ‘available to play’ could be taken a second definition, referring to pieces of music that you can’t buy. For example, lots of dance music played by top DJs, even today, consists of new tracks or special remixes which are unreleased.
6:30 – no major hold-ups. Was EPISTOLER chosen to generate conversation? 🙂
Only four on the first pass of acrosses and even after a few less stressful downs things didn’t look good. But once I realised I had the clue backwards and I wasn’t looking for a tremor to go after S to give a white wine the checkers from AFTRSHOCK got me underway.
Goalies aren’t always number 1s but number 1s are always goalies – except if you’re Argentina in the 1978 World Cup when they allocated numbers alphabetically so Ossie Ardiles wore 1.
All green in 12.39, which is a lot faster than I thought it was going to be in the early stages. EPISTOLER was last one in, hard definition but the cryptic seemed OK – got to ‘pistol’ via ‘rifle’.
What, no anagrams? That’s not right, not proper. Other than that, a pleasant Mondayish solve whilst peering into the dark at the rain in which I will be working today.
Heavens! You’re right, and I never noticed that when writing the blog.
Am I right in saying there are no hiddens either?
Yes you are, good spot! On the other hand there’s a surfeit of Gs – no fewer than nine. I noticed this while solving but can’t see anything being done with them.
Wasn’t that what did for Henry I?
A slow but steady start at the top but then stared at the empty bottom for a long time, then pike unlocked escargot. It all fell pretty quickly into place after that until LOI goalie finally fell at 28.17
Definitely clue of the day to myth, second thought after lath.
Thanks Teazel and Jack for the parsing of escargot. Must remember key isn’t always A to G
7 minutes, so a good start to the week, but I guessed EPISTOLER from the wordplay alone (not met the word with that meaning, and my auto-spellcheck has not met it at all) and put in CLANG without understanding how “essentially argue” makes a G. “Essentially” as “take the middle letter of”? Are the other letters not essential then? Is the G the “essence” of argue? Definitely not one I’ve met before.
Many thanks Jack for the blog
Cedric
It’s an interesting point about ‘essentially’, Cedric. A cursory search of the archive found 3 quite recent examples in 15×15 puzzles:
14ac in the 15×15 on 14th November this year, and 24dn in the ST puzzle blogged on 22nd September, both of these referring to a single central letter. The third was on the 20th September this year where it referred to all but the external letters of pOVERTy.
I went back 3 years looking for an example in a Quick Cryptic, but didn’t find one before today.
Football crowds with a good goalie in the 70s would often chant ‘England’s no 1’ when they made a good save. Even crowds did double meanings back then. And ON RECORD I just took to mean as in a form you could play on a sound system. I pictured a 45 as I put it in. Thanks Teazel and Jack.
Almost no Premier League Goalies are English now…
A top quality puzzle that I made very hard work of, which I’ll put down to Mondaymorningitis.
Started with BLOC and belatedly finished with EPISTOLER in 10.47.
Thanks to Jackkt
No problems today. NHO EPISTOLER, but easy to work out (and then check it’s a real word). Am I alone in feeling slightly dissatisfied with one word cryptic definitions as in 7A and 16A? For me, they’re not as enjoyable as unwrapping a tricky clue, however clever the definition.
Thanks Jack
16:41
I occasionally read the Epistle in church, but have never been described as the EPISTOLER. I have heard Gospeller used for the reader of the gospel. Is there a special word for the person who reads a lesson from the Old Testament ?
Thanks Jack and Teazel
Well it looks as though you are not an epistoler.From Wiktionary:
1) A writer of an epistle.
2) The ecclesiastic who reads the epistle at the communion service.
I am assuming you are a lay reader, so not def 2.
My daughter, from South Manchester calls someone from Eccles an Ecclesiastic.
Brilliant!
DNF SW Corner. NHO EPISTOLER. Did not know GOALIE was no 1. Main problem was a bad biff of Uneasy at 17d.
Otherwise enjoyed it.
Thanks, Jack.
I was Uneasy for a while too.
17:26
Biffed ESCARGOT but then started to doubt it as couldn’t see the wordplay and removed it again. This resulted in the top right corner holding me up. Only when it saw SPARE TYRE did the rest go in. LOI SOAR.
16:42 for the solve!
Not at the races today but I’m comforted to discover in coming here that it was a Teazel, my regular Nemesis. Thought the Yorkshire river would be the Ure, tried for ages to get “music” as the second word for 21a, litany of other errors. I need espresso.
Limped home in 12:27 for a Very Bad Day. Many thanks Teazel and Jack.
First thoughts on Toledo was that Klinger in M*A*S*H came from there and it was in Ohio.
Indeed, me too. Though OOH didn’t look very likely. Forgot about Klinger, though.
What a weird puzzle. Top half and SE corner fine, leaving SW and central totally blank. Finally got CHIN, but no idea what he was on about with the final six. No anagrams, no hiddens. Humph.
So: thank you, jackkt – simple answer is NHO any of them!
Fairly speedy solve today at 7.00 exactly. Hesitated slightly at EPISTOLER but trusted the cryptic direction, and really should have been swifter (as in Frank Swift perhaps) for my LOI GOALIE which cost me about thirty seconds.
6.32
When EPISTOLER appeared (plus the tricky nature overall) I was sure this would be an Izetti but no.
Liked BLACK MAGIC
Thanks Teazel and Jackkt
Top puzzle.
Thanks Jack and Teazel (and Phil for yesterday 👍)
DNF. I biffed ESCARGOT but couldn’t parse it and couldn’t construct the NHO EPISTOLER. I was also thrown by the ‘cryptic’ clues that don’t require parsing…..i.e SPARE TYRE and BOOTLEGGER. I didn’t understand MYTH until I read the blog and I thought GUESTHOUSE was weak. Not my kind of QC at all. Sorry Teazel.
8.23. Straightforward enough once I got my brain into synch with the setter.
8:36
Found this tricky, clever and excellent.
Thanks Teazel and Jack.
First pass of the acrosses produced little apart from the 4 letter answers. More progress was made in the downs, but several passes were required before the grid was complete. IGLOO was FOI and BLACK MAGIC was LOI. EPISTOLER was assembled from wordplay and crossers. 6:56. Thanks Teazel and Jack.
I finished this but struggled throughout-and interrupted. Estimate 15 -20 minutes.
LOI MYTH.
A biffed Freeloader caused me quite a delay but I never really hit a rhythm.
Looking back there were some excellent clues and the NHO EPISTOLER was easy enough from the cryptic.
COD to ESCARGOT.
David
First one I’ve done that had no anagrams and no hidden answers, which consequently put me in a bit of difficulty. GOALIE AND EPISTOLER took ten minutes alone, not having GO or E’ER in my limited armoury. A good learning experience.
I thought EPISTOLVER must be the answer but it was a letter too long!
Like Martinu top half all completed with little below.
DNF due to goalie.
Didn’t find this that easy.
I really like Teazel puzzles even though, as with today’s, I often struggle throughout. Crawled to a finish just as my coffee ran out. LOI EPISTOLER (NHO but didn’t seem too much of a stretch). Other hold-ups included SPARE TYRE and BOOTLEGGER as I was looking for wordplay 🙄 Liked MYTH and CLANG. I often have to write out the anagrist in anagrammed clues and regularly fail to spot a hidden so didn’t really miss their absence! Thanks Jack and Teazel.
15d Goalie. I had no idea that a goalie wears a No 1 shirt, in fact I was unaware that any shirt numbers were significant.
Failed to read 2d Escargot properly and had a MER, quite undeserved by Teazel. Thought the key was @ and didn’t approve of slang being correct for escargot, rather it is plain French, and a nicer term than commercial at.
Foolishly put 13d Sap (short for soap, short for soap opera, a long story.) It made BootlePger pretty hard. Sag(a) was much better.
No time, similar to David1 rough estimate 15-20m.
Struggled with goalie (COD), black magic, enmity, epistoler, and LOI goggle.
I thought this one tough but fair.
Teazel and Izetti always give me pause because I am never sure where the definition is, or whats going on with the rest of the clue. A lot of other difficult puzzles I find difficult because of obscurity rather than misdirection. But then again as I’ve found by engaging with this blog – everyones definition of obscure is different!
23 mins for me, 8 mins over par. Thanks setter and blogger
14 mins…
I really enjoyed this and thought it was pitched nicely (for me at least) – with 10ac “Aftershock”, 6dn “Myth” and 21ac “Black Magic” all getting smiley faces.
As an aside, not sure I’ve seen the use of “essentially” to mean the middle letter before.
FOI – 1ac “Pike”
LOI – 5dn “Regret”
COD – 15dn “Goalie”
Thanks as usual!
Enjoyed this, nice and straightforward, no issues.COD to myth, because, as always, it made me smile.
I found this distinctly tricky, finishing in 24 minutes all parsed. Like many here I didn’t get too many of the acrosses on first pass and struggled in the bottom half, especially in the SW.
FOI – 1ac PIKE
LOI – 15dn GOALIE
COD – 21ac BLACK MAGIC
Thanks to Teazel and Jack.
Nice Quickie with a couple of chewy ones which I think are always welcome.
24:11 with no errors. Quite pleased to finish as Teazel is one of the setters I tend to struggle with (see also Breadman and Izetti). I too had NHO EPISTOLER, but wordplay meant it had to be. FOI – SOAR, LOI – BOOTLEGGER, COD – EPISTOLER for making a previously unheard of word solvable. Thanks Teazel and Jack
DNF, not great at spotting the whole cryptic thing, clues.
but smiled at MYTH, as only got it as I read the clue out loud to my husband!
Found it harder as no anagrams or run throughs, but COD is BLACK MAGIC.
thanks Teasing Teasel.
For some reason I got stuck on SH as supposed to TH as the sound of a lisp (maybe thinking of Sean Connery!), so that made LASH a bit of a no-no 😅 Got there in the end, in about 15 minutes, a good five of which were spent on my LOI. Unlike Yorkshire Lass (lash?), I rather like cryptics, so SPARE TYRE and BOOTLEGGER both got ticks.
FOI Bloc LOI Excise COD Aftershock
Thanks Teazel and Jack
13:31. I knew GOGGLEs as eyewear so entered GOGGLE on a guess after pondering giggle and gaggle.
14:42, and spent some time pondering things after a very unproductive first pass, but no big hold-ups, unusual for me with Teazel.
I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a QC with no anagrams! (Didn’t notice the lack of hiddens, which is appropriate since they are so hard for me to spot!)
It was fun figuring out EPISTOLER and convincing myself it was a real word. I’m grateful for the crossing Y (MYTH, haha) that saved me from the Americanism TIRE. Speaking of Americanisms, 4d CASTLE was soooo slow to parse. In my world the wordplay is more likely to elicit OHO! I didn’t know why a GOALIE is number one, nor what boxes have to do with GOGGLEs, so thanks for the blog.
Thanks Teazel – on reviewing I see more excellent clues than I can mention –and to jackkt for the clarifications.
DNF in 50+ minutes. Never saw TYRE, so put SPARE lanE. Therefore impossible to find MYTH from _a_H at 6d.
Absolutely no idea what was going on with ESCARGOT and CLANG. I guessed them both correctly, but without any feelings of satisfaction.
‘Slang’ might translate to ARGOT in some foreign tongue, I suppose, but none that Mrs Random (or any of the three members of her U3A Advanced German group who turned up shortly after I threw in the towel) have ever come across.
And G for ‘Essentially argue’ is simply ridiculous IMHO. Does ‘Essentially essentially’ therefore = T? Or, do ‘necessarily argue’, ‘vitally argue’ and ‘crucially argue’ (etc.) all = G?
EPISTOLER was another NHO, but I somehow remembered E’ER for ‘always’ from some time ago and PISTOL for ‘fun’ was straightforward, of course.
All in all, this was tough going for me and not really a QC. More a 15×15-lite, perhaps.
Many thanks to Jack.
A breezy 7:43 for me, one of my fastest. I always find anagrams hard, so it makes sense that I have a fast time on a day without any. Liked MYTH and SOAR, which took me a moment to understand that is was “so far” that was heartless, not just “far”.
Thanks to Jackkt and Teazel.
This took a while. Started it in the coffee shop in town, but had to finish it when I got home. The bottom was more difficult than the top.
I kept looking for anagrams and hidden to
No avail.
I think I found the 15×15 easier!
Thanks for the blog Jack, and thanks Teazel
15 mins but DNF when EPISTOLER failed to surface: new word noted (how long before it appears again?) ESCARGOT was fine by me: argot is slang in French. Enjoyed the tremor after some Hock and smiled at the lisping MYTH. With no anagrams and no hiddens, this felt slightly different: but none the worse for that. Thanks to Teazel and to Jack
DNF We found some clues very difficult. Epistoler, not known.
Same time for me as todays 15×15. A born on the banks of The Great Ouse boy like me always grates when Ouse is a Yorkshire river.
Ah, but at least your Ouse is Great!
8.28 I didn’t know EPISTOLER but it was clear from the wordplay. The rest of the SW and PIKE slowed me down. Thanks Jack and Teazel.
18 min finish with, of course, Epistoler being the LOI but I was working on the assumption that it was e’rr with a type of gun in the middle, so when the T from enmity dropped in it was a finish.
Thanks Jack and Teazel