Hi everybody. Once again Alex hits the brief – this was my smoothest solve since the last Alex, who has given me two of my last three sub-5s. I liked the curious need in 17a and 10d’s disaster (not to be confused with this). Thanks Alex!
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 | Suspect vapour corrosion (8) |
MISTRUST — MIST (vapour) + RUST (corrosion) | |
5a | Fragment caught by joint (4) |
CHIP — C (caught) by HIP (joint) | |
8a | Smarten up stable hand (5) |
GROOM — Two definitions | |
9a | Scent anger (7) |
INCENSE — Another double definition | |
11a | Worldly former sovereign having break during test (11) |
TERRESTRIAL — ER (former sovereign) and REST (break) inside (during) TRIAL (test) | |
13a | Bit of beer I eradicated for stranger (6) |
EERIER — Hidden: a bit of bEER I ERadicated | |
14a | Like group’s property (6) |
ASSETS — AS (like) + SET’S (group’s) | |
17a | Curious need developed over time (2,3,6) |
IN DUE COURSE — An anagram of (… developed) CURIOUS NEED | |
20a | Puzzled birds in sack (7) |
BEMUSED — EMUS (birds) in BED (sack) | |
21a | Start to peel every single fruit (5) |
PEACH — The first letter of (start to) Peel + EACH (every single) | |
22a | Peer is almost ahead of schedule (4) |
EARL — Without the last letter (almost) EARLy (ahead of schedule) | |
23a | Crazy act involving people with time (8) |
DEMENTED — DEED (act) containing (involving) MEN (people) with T (time) |
Down | |
1d | Remove top of picture for sorcerer (4) |
MAGE — Alex is instructing us to remove the first letter of (top of) iMAGE (picture) to get the answer | |
2d | Gun with small nose (7) |
SHOOTER — S (small) + HOOTER (nose) | |
3d | Sorrel seems strangely savage (11) |
REMORSELESS — An anagram of (… strangely) SORREL SEEMS | |
4d | Thinly slice second piece of offal (6) |
SLIVER — S (second) + LIVER (piece of offal) | |
6d | Back one language (5) |
HINDI — HIND (back) + I (one) | |
7d | Redesigned sleepers beyond compare (8) |
PEERLESS — An anagram of (redesigned) SLEEPERS | |
10d | Disaster as endless pot and ecstasy is introduced by jazz fan (11) |
CATASTROPHE — AS, TROPHy (pot) without the last letter (endless …) and E (ecstasy) is preceded by (introduced by) CAT (jazz fan) | |
12d | Trustworthy about having exposure to risk (8) |
RELIABLE — RE (about) + LIABLE (having exposure to risk) | |
15d | Refined film about strange angel (7) |
ELEGANT — ET (film) around (about) an anagram of (strange) ANGEL | |
16d | Partial to posh, European dish (6) |
FONDUE — FOND (partial to) + U (posh) + E (European) | |
18d | Mostly modest object (5) |
DEMUR — Except for the last letter (mostly) DEMURe (modest) | |
19d | That woman had rudimentary dwelling (4) |
SHED — SHE’D (that woman had) |
9 minutes. Nice puzzle.
I saw you were mentioned in The Times on Saturday for your entry to this blog regarding William Tell not being an archer. They are watching!
Thanks. I must have missed that. Can you send me a link please or confirm exactly where it was to be found in the paper / newsletter?
I saw it mentioned on Friday 6th in Patrick Kidd’s column.
Thanks. I’ve found it now. Patrick Kidd wrote:
Having learnt how to solve cryptic crosswords during lockdown, I have discovered timesforthetimes.co.uk, where readers explain the answers to puzzles in the paper and then wrestle over how they could have been improved. It is often an education.
One recent clue that seemed quite straightforward was “Archer William to have noticeable effect (4)”. The letters T-E-L-L quickly went into 21 down. But this was not good enough for a reader called “Jackkt”, who said that the Swiss apple-shooter was not an archer since he used a crossbow. “Arbalist” was the preferred overture, or possibly “arcubalist”.
“Countrywoman1” suggested this was needless nit-picking, which drew a response from “Toxshot”, who said the weapons were as different as pistols and rifles, adding: “As an archery judge I would be less than happy to see a crossbow on the line.” At least no one said that William is a Grundy rather than an Archer. [End]
I know that a few contributors and bloggers like to suggest improvements to clues but that’s never been the purpose of TfTT. We discuss shades of meanings of words and discuss possible inaccuracies in clues which are most usually (although not in the example given here) resolved in the setter’s favour. Having tried it myself and more often than not failed I know how difficult it is to write a good clue so I would rarely presume to advise setters on how they might have done a better job.
Gosh, a mention in The Times. What I said was ‘Tell is a legend so let’s stick to archer – one less nit to pick🙂’.
I admit I am a nitpicker myself though.
8:58
I didn’t parse CATASTROPHE, bunged it in from cat = jazz fan.
I never remember that the film is ET!
7.15. A bit of a romp but a pleasurable one.
Lovely puzzle for a slow Monday morning. Smooth surfaces, a few smiles and all done in a very creditable 16.30.
COD to shed for its simplicity once the penny dropped.
Thanks Alex and Kitty
Nice top to bottom solve with no hold ups.
Started with MISTRUST and finished with FONDUE in 5.22.
Thanks to Kitty and Alex
19:03 for the solve! I must be the exception because I didn’t find that hit the brief. A few answers went straight in and then I was stumped. It was only when I finally unravelled REMORSELESS that clues began tumbling. Without checkers, I contend FONDUE, MAGE, CATASTROPHE, TERRESTRIAL, BEMUSED, DEMUR are tough to get. Didn’t like that SLIVER seems to be defined as a verb (“thinly slice”).
Very nice puzzle, a perfectly pitched QC I thought. 9.06 but I should have been quicker, forgot to be sufficiently intense. LOI RELIABLE, really liked CATASTROPHE, and it’s good to see the setters’ favourite movie getting another go. Thanks Alex and Kitty.
16:31
A bit disappointing, held up with BEMUSED / DEMUR. Had to use out an anagram of BIRDS IN.
Sack and pit are popular choices to define bed. Nothing too much to frighten the horses here after some recent horror shows. 5:18
Found it hard to get going, and the 1s ended up being my last two in. Eventually it came together. COD BEMUSED. From SLIVER to MISTRUST in 08:39 for a Sluggish Day.
Many thanks Alex and Kitty.
8.56 and all green. Thought I was on for a quick one but SW held me up in the end. IN DUE COURSE I just couldn’t see. LOI was EERIER even though I had already identified it as a hidden.
Thanks Alex for a fair Monday offering and thanks Kitty for taking the time to parse out all of the clues something I didnt bother to do for some of the longer ones CATASTROPHE for example.
MER at SLIVER bring treated as a verb, but otherwise an enjoyable straightforward QC. Thanks Kitty and Alex.
Same. Americanism it seems. Enjoyed the puzzle though!
Mist and vapour are not the same thing (liquid drops v. gas)
Slow to start (FOI SLIVER) but got there in the end – LOI MISTRUST, because NHO MAGE (as opposed to MAGus, of course). Collins says “archaic”. Humph. Otherwise all fine, a satisfactory Monday morning. Thank you, Alex.
Mage is used frequently in fantasy novels, not archaic at all.
I don’t think I have read a fantasy novel since childhood. Not my genre. So biffed (I)MAGE.
A very nice 27m solve.
For 20a I couldn’t see why MUSE = BIRDS until I realised I was on the wrong side of the BED.
Thanks Kitty and Alex
I found this middling difficulty, stuck for a while in the SW but ended in 21 mins fully parsed. NHO shooter for a gun rather than the person using it.
Isn’t ‘eerier’ a strange word?
DNF
All done in 13 but in my haste to finish put FOODIE for someone partial to a posh dish. Immediately saw my error when I hit submit but, of course, too late by then.
I had to talk myself out of “foodie”.
10:06
Held up by entering STRIPE for 4d (tripe is definitely offal, and striping seems no worse than slivering for thinly slicing). This delayed my getting most of the rest of the NE corner. LOI was INCENSE.
Thanks Kitty and Alex
Pleased to solve this one, looked like it was going to defeat me at one point before one clue led to another and I was all done in 16.45. Not all green though, I managed to type RrMORSELESS on my phone.
10:22
Held up in the SW. LOI RELIABLE, but it was DEMUR/BEMUSED that had me scratching my head for ages, despite having seen emus in plot very recently.
Thanks Alex and Kitty.
Spot on – emus in bed featured in Friday’s 15×15
Since the weekend has passed, we will let this go, but generally speaking you (plural) should not be mentioning the answers to other current puzzles in your comments.
Point taken, although like you, I assume that most readers here will already have completed the Friday puzzles to whatever extent they usually do.
Apologies if I inadvertently ruined anyone’s enjoyment of the as-yet-unattempted challenge 😁
Just 2 clues slowed me down…… MAGE for a short while and LOI FONDUE for quite some time because I couldn’t parse ‘noodle’! 6:53
Ha – I also had noodle in my noggin for some while!
My quickest time for a while at 6.35 and no holdups to speak of. I didn’t start all that quickly but certainly finished at a gallop.
A very slow brain day for me as I laboured through this one. Doesn’t help when you’re not used to some of the clues (eg. film = ET seems impossible to know, there are a lot of films out there…). I also got stuck on IN DUE COURSE which I just couldn’t see for ages for some reason. Still, decent puzzle.
ET is definitely the film to remember, very short and convenient for setters! I’m no crossword addict but I’ve seen it often (the clueing, not the film…)
A film in a crossword is about 50% likely to be ET in my experience. Yes there are a lot of films, but only 1 ET!
I’ll consider this my lesson for the day!
Which reminds me … what’s E.T. short for? Because he’s only got little legs
I wasn’t able to get into an across then down solving mode, but had to jump around the grid to get anywhere today, but finished in a decent time anyway. From MAGE to RELIABLE in 6:47. Not seen SLIVER used as a verb before. Thanks Alex and Kitty.
An ideal Monday puzzle, enough to get the cogs turning but not frustrating. Failed to anagram “birds in” despite several tries, then failed for some time to see the emus, but laughed when I did. IN DUE COURSE was a very neat clue. Lots more to like.
10 mins…
A very smooth solve this morning, and one of my quickest times for quite a while. Only major hold up was untangling the parsing behind 10dn “Catastrophe”.
FOI – 1dn “Mage”
LOI – 16dn “Fondue”
COD – 20ac “Bemused”
Thanks as usual!
I sailed through this decent offering until my LOI had me scratching my head for half a minute. Thanks Kitty and Alex.
FOI MISTRUST
LOI FONDUE
COD DEMENTED
TIME 4:04
Made heavy weather of this, but finished all correct in the end. Every time I managed to solve a clue, it seemed as if the only crosser it produced was the letter ‘e’.
Liked MISTRUST, SLIVER, DEMUR, ASSETS, HINDI.
Thanks vm, Kitty.
DNF, due to an error at 1d. It was singular, so couldn’t be MAGI and had only four letters, so couldn’t be MAGUS. So, I decided to lift MUGS from mugshot and trust that it was the name of a sorcerer I had NHO. My knowledge of sorcerers is very limited, so this seemed to be my best option. I had never read nor heard MAGE as the singular for MAGI and, despite many minutes of brain-wracking, I never thought of image for picture.
Both Mrs Random and I are still baffled by CAT being clued as jazz fan and neither of us liked SLIVER being clued as a verb. Not one of Alex’s best, IMHO.
Many thanks to Kitty for the blog.
Hep (Hip) Cats passed you by in the 60s then ?
We had it in July (2742, Rongo) – “Imitator of police officer and unknown jazz fan? (7)”. You cracked it then!
Maybe you are too young to have heard of Cool Cats.
I found this quite tricky in places, especially down the LHS, so I wasn’t at all surprised to end up with a back seat solve. 12d, (or a shilling for the meter), Reliable, was anything but for most of the time, before becoming the key to unlocking the other hold-outs, and allowing a finish à la Templar with 1ac/d. CoD for its amusing surface to 10d, Catastrophe. Invariant
Not a smooth solve but home in just under 12 minutes. LOI EERIER; I had looked for a hidden on first pass but failed to see this. POI was RELIABLE.
Not held up at all by DEMUR and BEMUSED; funny how these things go.
COD to MISTRUST.
David
Having jumped around the grid quite a lot, I was happy to finish in just under 10 minutes. I agree with our blogger that this was a well judged QC level – quick but giving pause for thought.
19:34, no errors. As someone who enjoys RPG video games such as “Skyrim”, MAGE was a write-in for me. I also haven’t seen SLIVER as a verb but Chambers supports it. FOI – CHIP, LOI – FONDUE, COD – SHOOTER which made me smile, also liked BEMUSED. Thanks Alex and Kitty.
As does Collins: 3. to divide or be divided into splinters; split 4. (transitive) to form (wool, etc) into slivers
Late to this today as I spent the morning Christmas shopping, with remarkably little luck. Fortunately I was more successful with this very nice puzzle, all done in 8 minutes. Kitty’s description of it “hitting the brief” seems particularly apt as I cannot remember a briefer and terser set of clues for a QC for some time – the space allocated to the clues in the printed version has more blank space than one usually sees.
No hold-ups, as my time suggests, and just the most minor of comments that whether or not eerie is a strange word, EERIER is certainly stranger.
Many thanks Kitty for the blog
Cedric
I was another solver who put in stripe without a second thought – fits perfectly, has to be the answer! Slice thinly must be the 28th definition in Chambers. Then I saw that terrestrial was a possible answer, but didn’t fit the crossing letter, so I let it go. Then I saw that incense was a possible answer, but didn’t fit either. So I erased stripe, put in terrestrial and incense, and saw that the it must be sliver. So I was somewhat delayed in what was a quite easy puzzle.
Looking at the very concise clues, and the pseudonym chosen, leads me to think of one particular setter – I wonder if it is he?
Time: 8:07
How different we all are. I did not find the puzzle straightforward and oddly found it a very boring and uninteresting solve. As a puzzle I give it a 2 out of 10 for amusement and interest. Just shows how we all perceive these things differently.
Eight – good across the top for the Downs except four down. The three easier across clues. I’ll keep at it.
💪
9:50 COD to FONDUE.
It took us about a minute and a half to get LOI FONDUE at 11:10 but it was an enjoyable puzzle. COD MISTRUST for me. Thanks to Kitty and Alex.
6:26 – v good level for a Monday. I liked SHOOTER and EERIEST (which I saw as a hidden word clue but couldn’t convince my brain that EE was a valid start for ages)
thanks both!
Never really got going on this one from Alex butI can’t put my finger on why. Brain still in weekend mode I expect. I fell into various traps already mentioned and couldn’t see the hidden at 13ac until I had the starting letter (and I was looking for the wrong sort of stranger anyway). All good and parsed eventually in 19 minutes.
FOI – 5ac CHIP
LOI – 13ac EERIER
COD – 1ac MISTRUST
Thanks to Alex and Kitty
27 min. Flying through, getting all the anagrams at first view. But I hit the SW corner and slowed. Didn’t help that had Defer for Demur. Once corrected, Bemused and Reliable, finally went it.
Thanks Alex and Kitty
Time on club involves a few minutes of diffusing a row with the lifestyle inhibitors.
So net time of ~13m.
Got stuck in the middle, until I wasn’t and it flowed smoothly again.
Think 14a assets needs a ? as a dbe.
COD Mistrust.
Similar to Sam above – finished in about 30 minutes with BEMUSED, DEMUR and FONDUE the last ones in.
An enjoyable start to the week. Thank you Alex and Kitty (I couldn’t parse CATASTROPHE)
13:52 here, but sadly I didn’t like this puzzle very much. Not sure why: probably just a severe bout of Mondayitis. Ho hum, onto tomorrow.
Thanks to Alex and Kitty.
8:22
Didn’t feel particularly smooth today, having to scratch around a bit. Equilibrium affected by cat on keyboard and Mrs H wondering why I wasn’t paying attention to what she was saying – some things are sacred.
Thanks Kitty and Alex
Was that a jazz fan on your keyboard?
Just over 20 minutes to complete this entertaining puzzle, nicely pitched.
20:30 spent crawling through this lovely QC in my foggy sleep-deprived state (excuses, excuses!)
Lots of things to like here, but I vote for the puzzled emus. Though it’s not clear whether I’m more BEMUSED or DEMENTED today.
Thanks Alex and Kitty!
5.31
Smooth one here. Like Busman FONDUE needed some thinkage at the end.
11.27 Mostly quick but I was slowed down by everything in the SW except EARL. LOI RELIABLE. Thanks Kitty and Alex.
19 min, which is fast for me.
Very enjoyable. Have learnt that cats is a jazz fan.
COD Terrestrial
Thanks to Alex and Kitty.