Hello, and welcome to Christmas Eve Eve. I hope you all have a lovely festive season and I’ll see you again on the other side.
EDIT: following comments, I can reassure you that today’s puzzle was clearly on the tough side for a Quick Cryptic. I must have been in the zone as nothing held me up unduly and I found plenty to like, my favourite clue being 16d. 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 | |
| 7a | French food that is to the rear of British (4) |
| BRIE — IE (that is) after (to the rear of) BR. (British) | |
| 8a | Popular group, with leader away, failing to perform (8) |
| INACTION — IN (popular) + fACTION (group) without the first letter (with leader away) | |
| 9a | Oppose wild jumping Jack abandons (6) |
| IMPUGN — An anagram of (wild) [j]UMPING which J (jack) leaves (abandons) | |
| 10a | Former lover abandoned bottle, almost free (6) |
| EXEMPT — EX (former lover) + EMPTy (abandoned bottle) stopping short of its last letter (almost) | |
| 11a | Group of hunters satisfied bagging tail of grouse (4) |
| MEET — MET (satisfied) taking in (bagging) the last letter of (tail of) grousE | |
| 12a | Road marker from motorway with large English letters (8) |
| MILEPOST — MI (M1, motorway) + L (large) + E (English) + POST (letters) | |
| 15a | Bored concealing power provided by working munitions (8) |
| WEAPONRY — WEARY (bored) around (concealing) P (power) and ON (working) | |
| 17a | Web program beginning to harm two things (4) |
| BOTH — BOT (web program) + the first letter of (beginning to) Harm | |
| 18a | Church expert accepting new risk (6) |
| CHANCE — CH. (church) + ACE (expert) taking in (accepting) N (new) | |
| 21a | Liberal American backed attempt with passion (6) |
| SULTRY — L (Liberal) and US (American) reversed (backed) + TRY (attempt) | |
| 22a | Ran round Sidney, off-balance (8) |
| LOPSIDED — LOPED (ran) round SID (Sidney) | |
| 23a | Right to deploy plan (4) |
| RUSE — R (right) + USE (to deploy) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Top politician going to European film debut (8) |
| PREMIERE — PREMIER (top politician) + E (European) | |
| 2d | Lustre going off in sequel (6) |
| RESULT — LUSTRE anagrammed (going off) | |
| 3d | Oral statement of offender on Monday is spicy stuff (8) |
| CINNAMON — CINNA here is a soundalike of (oral statement of) SINNER (offender) on MON (Monday) | |
| 4d | Create market that’s failing regularly? (4) |
| MAKE — MArKEt having regular letters deleted (that’s failing regularly?) | |
| 5d | Looks up to take in introduction of theatrical Hollywood star (6) |
| STREEP — PEERS (looks) reversed (up) to take in the first letter (introduction) of Theatrical | |
| 6d | Concession securing a TV series? (4) |
| SOAP — SOP (concession) around (securing) A | |
| 13d | Bet political advisor will keep source of scandal in reserve (3,5) |
| LAY ASIDE — LAY (bet) + AIDE (political advisor) will contain (keep) the initial letter (source) of Scandal | |
| 14d | Sort of comic artist is funny (8) |
| SATIRIST — ARTIST IS anagrammed (funny) | |
| 16d | Wordplay is hard to beat? (6) |
| PUNISH — PUN (wordplay) + IS + H (hard) | |
| 17d | Negative comment involving the French debut for Ravel — this piece? (6) |
| BOLERO — BOO (negative comment) containing (involving) LE (the, French) and the first letter of (debut for) Ravel | |
| 19d | Ring Houses of Parliament initially about nothing (4) |
| HOOP — First letters of (… initially) Houses Of Parliament around (about) O (nothing) | |
| 20d | Limits or borders of European domains (4) |
| ENDS — Outer letters of (borders of) EuropeaN DomainS | |
15:13. Gosh! I’m first. l’m afraid I did find a couple of things to hold me up, particularly EXEMPT where I spent ages at the end trying to justify it. Thank you Kitty for the PDM in the blog. WEAPONRY was hard too. I enjoyed Ravel’s Bolero
28:09 for the solve! Felt like I was stepping down from the 15×15 again. Only a tentative MEET, CHANCE and an unfinished MILE- on the first look of Across clues and felt bewildered by what most of it wanted. I’d have been quicker if I was a better biffer!
Liked this quite a lot. BOLERO was my last in and thought it clever being able to include the composer in the clue too. Liked MILEPOST after separating the wordplay from the definition. Liked EXEMPT and PUNISH.
Thanks Kitty and setter.
Boloro was foi and regrettably also loi
Way too tough for a novice.
17 minutes missing my extended target by 2. Oh for the days long gone when bottles were never abandoned because there was money back on the empties!
Those days are still here in the US, where Connecticut just doubled the bottle deposit. However, many are abandoned anyway.
13 minutes. Exactly the same as kapietro, I found first EXEMPT and then WEAPONRY quite difficult and almost gave up on the latter at the end. Favourite was MILEPOST which would almost do as a straight def as well.
Thanks to Kitty and Pedro
I found this tricky in places with some new (to me) definitions, such as sequel/RESULT and oppose/IMPUGN (although this is the first definition in Chambers 😳).
However there was some clever wordplay and I enjoyed eking out the answers – particularly in the bottom half of the grid.
Started with BRIE and finished with WEAPONRY in 9.42.
Thanks to Kitty and Pedro
That was a struggle, and my eyebrows were raised at several points. RESULT = sequel? “Failing regularly” = delete 3rd and 6th letter? SULTRY = with passion and IMPUGN = oppose also held me up but I accept others may think them more obvious. All led to a slow and bitty solve, but home eventually in 16 minutes. Not a day when I was on Pedro’s wavelength …
Many thanks Kitty for the blog
Cedric
This was almost word for word what I would have posted had I got here earlier.
FOI BRIE
LOI STREEP
COD PUNISH
TIME 7:42
Wow, a sub-Busman time (5:57)! I can’t remember that happening before. Thank you!
(I will add a note to the intro though to reassure people, as it’s now clear the puzzle was harder than I found it.)
Found this tough but fair throughout. MER at MAKE having every 3rd letter removed rather than every second… does that happen, is any regular deletion fair game?
I have seen “every third letter” before but not very often and possibly not in a QC.
A quick search throws up some recent examples including some Mephistos(!), a Sunday Times puzzle in June 2023 (where SAD was clued by every third letter of “squalid”) and a 15×15 in April 2022 where IGNEOUS turned out to be every third letter of “shiny granite close up is”. Thank goodness we didn’t get that one
I’d think as long as the deletions are equally spaced it’s doing what it says on the tin, so fair game. Though, if true, I definitely would like to see a longish word clued with every fifth or sixth letter removed from the fodder. (And, setters, if you try that and succeed, we’d appreciate an anonymous post telling us how long it took to create)
10:38
I can’t remember a previous case where regular deletion involved every third letter rather than every alternate one, but don’t see any reason against it.
Held up at the end by LOPSIDED and LAY ASIDE.
Thanks Kitty and Pedro
Not on Pedro’s wavelength at all so as a ‘sequel’ I didn’t bother!
I was way off Pedro’s wavelength, too. I found it a disconcerting puzzle and my slowest for months.
22.15. If I thought that my previous solving time was slow, this one was off the clock. I thought that some of the definitions were rather too loose, but that doesn’t excuse my tardiness.
Also MER at MAKE having 3rd letters removed – not sure that counts as regularly. COD PUNISH. Thanks Kitty and Pedro.
I agree it’s unusual, in that it’s usually alternate letters, but “regularly” doesn’t (to me) imply “alternate”, and I thought it was a very neat clue, playing on expectations, as setters so often do. It’s what makes it interesting and a challenge.
Thank you, Kitty – six to the bad, stumped by abandoned bottle = empty; bored = weary; ran = loped; Hollywood star = Streep; political advisor = aide; source = first letter; wordplay = pun. But will attempt to learn as always!
DNF.
Found this very very difficult. Felt a bit like pulling teeth.
I spent an age trying to fit torpedoes in having convinced myself boredom was torpor. Missed WEAPONRY totally.
Had heard of STREEP but had no chance of solving that one.
The regular missing letter indicating every third letter flummoxed me. Sadly, there were many other clues I missed totally.
Hoping tomorrow’s QC is at my level.
Thanks for blog.
Similar. DNF. 10 answers in 30 mins.
Sequel = result?
Another one that shouldnt really be a quick cryptic in my view. Or alternatively perhaps the times should review and restate what the point of a Quick Cryptic is.
😅 One of the most popular, and deeply debated, lines of discussion in the TfTT QC blog over the years.!
Probably summarised as “ it’s not as hard as the 15×15 ( usually). “ Personally, over time I can now do this nearly all the time; not so the Biggie. But nobody seems to have said that this was meant to be “easy”.
Found this a bit tricky, being held up by EXEMPY and LOI, WEAPONRY. I also raised an eyebrow at MAKE. 9:32. Thanks Pedro and Kitty.
Needed two coffees and a bit of perseverance but crossed the line eventually! PDMs included MAKE/EXEMPT/STREEP and LOI MILEPOST. Enjoyed constructing CINNAMON (very much my favourite clue type) and PUNISH. Thanks for the blog kitty. Felt a bit off-wavelength throughout but as usual that didn’t stop any enjoyment. Thanks Pedro, a much-needed and lovely distraction this morning.
Tough one. I’m overlooking the fact I couldn’t spell IMPUGN (impuin) despite having the anagram in front of me. Hardly matters if the puzzle takes almost 36 minutes. LOI an unparsed EXEMPT. Was pleased to get BOLERO as I wouldn’t have been able to connect composer and piece beforehand. Thanks (I think) Pedro and Kitty.
Found this tricky leading to a DNF as could not see WEAPONRY or PUNISH though when I see the answers they are reasonable clues.
I agree with Cedric that some of the definitions were a bit stretching and that, combined with a portcullis grid, added to the difficulty.
One up to Pedro and thanks Kitty for the blog.
PS I see the Qsnitch is 128 which is at the top end of ‘harder’ and is a fair assessment of this puzzle.
As Fabian, I needed two coffees to complete this, but it gave a warm sense of an achievement when done. COD BOLERO, memories of Torville and Dean, but a close run thing with MILEPOST and WEAPONRY. LOI BOTH.
Finished in the time it takes the train from Salisbury to Bradford on Avon (35 minutes or thereabouts). Took a while to get going but tiptoed through it finishing with CINNAMON – just couldn’t parse it but it couldn’t be anything else!! Thanks Kitty for the explanation(s) and Pedro for an enjoyable challenge.
Certainly not the easiest, and I’m fairly content to finish this in 11.02. The major cause of my holdup was the ne corner where EXEMPT and finally SOAP finally dawned on me. I suspect quite a few will find this a good test.
Super crossword, thoroughly enjoyed. I also haven’t encountered the third-letter removal ruse before, but seems perfectly fair, and wins my COD because of it. Nice!
Quite difficult I thought. LOI WEAPONRY, which took some unravelling.
DNF disaster. Way off the wavelength, esp on RHS.
The field or followers gather at the MEET before hunting, to be accurate.
SULTRY biffed but another doubtful definition, imo.
BOLERO v clever. Love Meryl but did not solve.
Blog much needed, so thanks Kitty.
I’ve actually finished a few 15x15s quicker than today’s QC from Pedro and, believe me, that’s saying something. The Punish/Weaponry and Exempt/Street intersections put up a rearguard equal to anything Jack Leach could muster (OK, bar that one with Stokes) and easily doubled my usual time. Some satisfaction in eventually finishing, but not my idea of a QC. Invariant
23:02 I found CINNAMON and IMPUGN very hard. BOLERO was my COD. I didn’t think SULTRY meant “with passion” but it’s a good by-product of solving these puzzles to find out what some words actually mean!
7 mins.
No dramas.
Thanks, Kitty.
31:03
Well I was held up unduly. This was a slow solve. One of those where the 4 quadrants were fairly separate and needed solving independently. The top right seemed the toughest with STREEP, EXEMPT and MAKE all causing problems but it was the NW that held out longest with LOI MEET.
19.38 with no errors. I too had to biff some of the less obvious (to me) definitions such as SULTRY and RESULT, although the wordplay was fair. MAKE was the first time I’ve seen (or maybe that should say solved/biffed) a clue with every third letter removed. I liked BOLERO for the clever inclusion of Ravel in the clue but will give COD to SOAP for bringing back memories of my favourite US sitcom from my teenage years (most unlikely that would be allowed on TV these days however). FOI – BRIE, LOI – WEAPONRY. Thanks Pedro and Kitty.
Failure in top right.
Thought about STREEP, but couldn’t see how SREEP worked. Thought EXEMPT was tough, and although I put MAKE in, didn’t like that “failing regularly” doesn’t mean alternate letters. A sequence of two doesn’t justify “regular”.
COD BOLERO