An excellent puzzle from Pipsqueak, with a good range of tricks and no obscure vocabulary. I thoroughly enjoyed that and went through it in what is for me a sprightly time of 05:57. I hope you enjoyed it too.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Lack of resistance in the end (6) |
| DEARTH – R [resistance, the symbol from physics] goes inside [in] DEATH [the end]. Smooth cluing. Ohm’s Law (V = IR) has proved far more useful to me in crosswords than it did at school, since “current” for I and “resistance” for R crop up all the time. | |
| 4 | Dance with May on more than one occasion (6) |
| CANCAN – horrible visions of Theresa in Africa . Also memories of pedantic schoolteachers in my youth insisting that “may” and “can” are not the same thing: “Please can I …” was regularly met with “Of course you CAN, but you MAY not.” Pipsqueak obviously had nicer teachers. Anyway, if you ignore that then CANCAN = MAYMAY [May on more than one occasion]. | |
| 8 | Overwrought, always being caught by FBI agent (7) |
| FEVERED – EVER [always] going inside [being caught by] FED [FBI agent, now also modern British youth slang for the police]. | |
| 10 | Second XI’s source of power (5) |
| STEAM – S [second] + TEAM [XI]. I tried hard to convince myself that BTEAM was a word. | |
| 11 | Policemen arresting Republican group (5) |
| CORPS – COPS [policemen] going round [arresting] R [Republican]. Why on earth does “crops” mean “group”, I wondered at first. | |
| 12 | Important places India rebuilt (7) |
| SPECIAL – anagram [rebuilt] of “places I” (India = I in the NATO alphabet). | |
| 13 | Getting better? Yours truly’s demonstrating that (9) |
| IMPROVING – I’M [yours truly] PROVING [demonstrating], probably a chestnut but new to me and I liked it. | |
| 17 | European prices fluctuating? That’s correct (7) |
| PRECISE – anagram [fluctuating] of E [European] + “prices”. | |
| 19 | Further inconvenience, bishop resigning (5) |
| OTHER – “bishop resigning” tells us to remove a B from a word meaning “inconvenience” to get the answer; so it’s {b}OTHER. A very topical clue, given the C of E’s current travails. | |
| 20 | Neighbourhood welcoming new stadium (5) |
| ARENA – AREA [neighbourhood] including [welcoming] N [new]. | |
| 21 | Illegal trade in cars? (7) |
| TRAFFIC – a definition with a cryptic hint. Collins sense 5: “trade, esp of an illicit or improper kind” | |
| 22 | You shouldn’t miss this model (6) |
| SITTER – a SITTER is someone who poses for an artist and thus a “model”; it is also a extremely easy chance, usually in a sporting context, and thus something that “you shouldn’t miss” – for example an easy opportunity to score a goal in football is a “sitter” (usually described as such after the player has failed – “X missed an absolute sitter”). This second sense probably came from the expression “sitting duck”, meaning a duck which was extremely easy to shoot because it was sitting on the water rather than being in flight. Shooting sitting ducks was once a very popular activity, as recounted in this article about punt-gunning . | |
| 23 | Bankrupt recalling rubbish place to sleep (6) |
| DEBTOR – reversal [recalling] of ROT [rubbish} and BED [place to sleep]. A DEBTOR owes money and so could be a bankrupt. However, most people who owe money (eg mortgagors) are not bankrupts and so I did wonder if this should have been clued as a definition by example. Before the Debtors’ Act 1869 people could easily be imprisoned in England and Wales for not paying their debts; the most famous debtors’ prison was the Clink in Stoney Street, which gave us both “clink” as slang for prison and “stony-broke” for penniless. Its slightly gruesome history is here | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Go over to the other side? That’s a mistake (6) |
| DEFECT – double definition, depending on where you place the stress (deFECT/DEfect). | |
| 2 | Wrongly determines VAT for commercial (13) |
| ADVERTISEMENT – anagram [wrongly] of “determines VAT”. Lovely smooth clue. | |
| 3 | Son excited after performer appears (5,2) |
| TURNS UP – S for “son” + UP for “excited” (a bit tangential but Collins does offer sense 31 (!) in American English – “in an active, excited, or agitated state“) after TURN for “performer” (old school slang, especially from music halls). | |
| 5 | Passage extracted from Rabelais letter (5) |
| AISLE – hidden [extracted from] in “Rabelais letter”. | |
| 6 | Chatting away, like Jack Sprat’s wife at dinnertime? (7,3,3) |
| CHEWING THE FAT – “Jack Sprat could eat no fat, His wife could eat no lean” as the nursery rhyme says. So she would indeed have been CHEWING THE FAT at dinnertime, ho ho! COD from me. | |
| 7 | Sprightly doctor taking dip in river (6) |
| NIMBLE -“doctor” can be so many things – DR, MO, MD, DOC, PHD, RIG or even WHO! And of course it can be an anagram indicator too. Today it’s … none of those, it’s MB, which goes inside [taking dip in] the NILE. Lovely clue. | |
| 9 | Corrupt detective inspector did well on street (9) |
| DISHONEST – DI [detective inspector] SHONE [did well] ST [street]. My LOI, because it took me a little while to see SHONE. | |
| 14 | I’m angry, holding on for a significant period (4,3) |
| IRON AGE – I RAGE [I’m angry], which contains ON [holding on]. | |
| 15 | Fruit on board for Britney? (6) |
| SPEARS – megastar chanteuse Britney SPEARS is today’s living person (definitely famous enough to pass muster under the new code in my book). The wordplay is neat: PEAR [fruit] inside SS, and thus “on board” (because (a) SS is short for “steamship”, and (b) if you are “inside” a steamship then you are “on board”). Fun fact: “Britney Spears” quickly became Cockney Rhyming Slang for “beers”, as in “get the Britneys in, Dad”. I learned this from my disreputable children. | |
| 16 | Shopkeeper more overweight, might one say? (6) |
| GROCER – the grosser grocer drops by again; Trelawney brought him round only on 6 December. He’ll lose weight with all this exercise. | |
| 18 | Senseless expedition beginning thus? (5) |
| INANE – “expedition” begins IN AN E, geddit? | |
Slow to start but I soon picked up speed, finishing in an average sort of time (for me) of 16 minutes. All parsed as I went along which is a bit of a rarity in itself. Enjoyable puzzle with some fine surfaces but like others a MER at the bankrupt debtor.
FOI – 11ac CORPS
LOI – 1ac DEARTH (I was looking to take the r out of something rather than put it in for some reason)
COD – 6dn CHEWING THE FAT with runners up being CANCAN and INANE
Thanks to Pipsqueak and Templar
14.49 with no errors. Would have been quicker but I was held up by TURNS UP and LOI CANCAN. FOI – SPECIAL, COD – would have been INANE but I’m sure I’ve seen a similar clue before so I’ll give it to DISHONEST instead. Thanks Pipsqueak and Templar.
The three obvious ones – just not seeing all the anagram indicators. pretty rubbish really.
Try one of mine:
A vineyard is home to my French friend (3, 9)
A poor start, with nothing to show until the 12ac Special. Fortunately the bottom half of the grid was more forthcoming, and the two long down answers then gave me a chance to sort out the NW and NE corners. I arrived at the SCC threshold with just the dance to crack. . . several minutes, May Trees, Hawthorns and other miscellaneous thoughts later, the CanCan was finally in place.
Chewing the Fat was good, but I do like self-referencing clues, so 18d Inane gets my CoD vote today.
Very informative blog Templar – you are in danger of giving Barristers a good name if you keep this up. Invariant
That’ll be 500 guineas, then (just to restore our usual popularity!).
16 mins…
Agreed, some great clues today, including 6dn “Chewing the fat”, 18dn “Inane” and my COD 15dn “Spears”.
I also had the “can” and “may” debate going around my head – my understanding was that “may” was the polite form. Similarly, I questioned 23ac “Debtor” as a bankrupt for all the reasons outlined above.
FOI – 4ac “Cancan”
LOI – 1ac “Dearth”
COD 15dn “Spears”
Thanks as usual!
can equates to am I able to (walk, in my case not)
may equates to asking permission
can I eat the cake – yes you are able
may I eat the cake – no that bit is for your sister
At least that’s my understanding as an illiterate scientist 🙂
Not quite as sprightly as Temple today but I still managed the solve in 6:51. I too wondered how CroPS meant group. I wasted time trying to parse INANE and I wasn’t happy with my LOI DEBTOR. I’m an accountant so struggle to equate DEBTOR and bankrupt. The synonym only seems to work in one direction. Thanks all.
Hard yards today, with over a minute and a half spent on my LOI here, which I entered with a shrug. I then gave the biggie the elbow after an hour with seven to go – I have got a few jobs I need to do today 😅
I didn’t get started until 13a – I’m not sure why I found it tricky because it’s a perfectly fair and entertaining crossword. I wish I’d done my usual thing of moving over to the downs after three or four acrosses, because ADVERTISEMENT jumped straight out and would have given some useful checkers.
CHEWING THE FAT got a smile.
13:27 FOI Improving LOI Sitter COD Cancan – oh may, not May! I am that pedantic parent, but mostly in jest. But ‘Can I get?’ instead of ‘May I have?’ drives me insane!
Thanks Pipsqueak and Templar – cracking blog and time 🔥
Lovely puzzle today. All done in 9.37 with a good 3 mins plus to solve POI NIMBLE and LOI CANCAN
COD INANE for its clever device.
Cheers Templar and Pipsqueak
A nice 15 minute solve over a pot of tea and blackcurrant slice.
Apart from 1ac and 1d, which I had to return to, I followed starting letters and crossers steadily down the grid.
Thanks Setter and thanks for the helpful blog. Hadn’t realised Britney had made it into Cockney rhyming slang.
No sure I knew the difference between may and can until I studied O Level German and its modal verbs. A German speaking English always gets it right.
In English we have made a terrible mess between may can could should would will shall. Never mind.
15 mins today. Excellent QC. Johnny
Don’t forget may’s pal might!
Indeed there were some great clues but a combination of insomnia and obscurities led to a long solving time of 26:07. CANCAN had me completely baffled (pedantry is ingrained in my character so “may” = “can” didn’t occur to me until an alphabet trawl suggested it). OTHER for “further” likewise stumped me, the “easy chance” meaning of SITTER is foreign to me, as well as the “performer” meaning for “turn”. Liked DISHONEST, smiled at INANE.
Thanks to Pipsqueak and Templar!
Couldn’t parse DEARTH but otherwise no problems until LOI CAN CAN where it took and age before I thought to remove the capital M from May 🙄 Favourite clue was SPEARS for the surface. Wasn’t sure about DEBTOR but happier now I’ve read everyone’s learned input! Thanks all
Thoroughly enjoyable puzzle with some witty clues. Loved the maymay! For 3d had FIRES UP (excited) until DEARTH scotched that idea. The long ones at 2d and 6d were a great help. Lois DISHONEST (unparsed) and SPECIAL (dearth of brainpower). Yours truly proving that he’s not 13a that much! 19.59……
19 minutes.
No joy to be had in that time as I suspect this will be very easy on the Snitch. Signs of improvement remain nonexistent.
Came to this late in the day after a stressful morning, and I’m hoping that this is the explanation for a pretty average time of 15 minutes on a puzzle that – as most people have said – was really pretty approachable. But all done in the end, despite trying Hamble for the river at 7D. and MERs at debtor = bankrupt (mentioned by many already) and precise = correct (mentioned by no-one, but I’m not convinced they are the same).
Many thanks Templar for a very entertaining blog
Cedric
A very relaxing and pleasant solve all done in about 30 minutes. Some very clever clues and the long ones down were more than fair to enable a foothold going forward. FOI ARENA
LOI DEARTH.
Thank you Pipsqueak and Templar
Surrendered @ 20 mins with Cancan and Nimble not done. Of course once I hit the blog and was given cancan, Nimble wrote itself. Very enjoyable puzzle, Inane giving me the greatest joy. Thanks Pip and Templar
I spent 3 hours (!!!) on the 15 x 15 and DNF’d by one lousy letter. That is beyond cruel. A huge investment of time and brain power for the sheer agony of a fail. ☹️
Overall a relatively easy puzzle but I must take issue with the clueing of SPEARS – “on board ship” would have been fine for “inside SS”, but simply “on board” was too far removed imho. The clue was easy overall – what else could it have been with such a distinctive given name in the clue? – but I was left wondering if I’d missed something in the parsing until Templar’s excellent blog confirmed my assumption. Thanks Pipsqueak.
07:51
Which is not bad in the middle of a Beavertown Lupuloid session.
LOI dearth
COD can can
My heart wasn’t so certain about my score, so I talked to a friend about it, and she revealed that she had a friend who works as an intern for the SAT College Board, and she was the driving force behind my aggregate. She can assist you; her email address is [email protected]. I hope you are successful.