Hello all. I hope the new year is treating you well.
With some clever misdirection in wordplay and definitions, this felt like the kind of puzzle which might sit better with experienced solvers used to more advanced puzzles. Because I’m one of those (just realised I started blogging nearly ten years ago – eek!) I did ok timewise (about average) and enjoyed it immensely, but it kept me thinking a couple of minutes longer than did the previous Bjorn puzzle. You need look no further than the first couple of acrosses to illustrate. Once of those might have been my Clue of the Day, but I have to mention the deftly-hidden 3d, which I got from checking letters before I found it in the clue. Thanks to Bjorn for the entertainment.
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 | Political philosopher worries about Republican group causing riot? (4,8) |
| MARX BROTHERS — MARX (political philosopher) + BOTHERS (worries) around (about) R (Republican). Riot in the fun sense: comedy rather than civic disturbance | |
| 8a | Object — one associated with Hull — pocketed by doctor (5) |
| DEMUR — EMU (one associated with Hull – Rod Hull, entertainer with puppet sidekick Emu) put inside (pocketed by) DR (doctor) | |
| 9a | Brownish vehicle male crashed (7) |
| CARAMEL — CAR (vehicle) + an anagram of (… crashed) MALE | |
| 10a | Facility with £50 off winter sport equipment (3) |
| SKI — SKI[ll] (facility) without LL (£50 off), the first L coming from Libra, pound sterling (£) and the second the Roman numeral 50 | |
| 11a | Disconnected and receiving no publicity (9) |
| UNPLUGGED — Two meanings. To plug something means to give it publicity | |
| 13a | Hey! Ad break periodically censored some stars (5) |
| HYDRA — With deletion of regular letters (… periodically censored) HeY! aD bReAk | |
| 14a | Very exposed lines become worn down (5) |
| ERODE — Without outer letters (… exposed) vERy + ODE (lines, of poetry) | |
| 16a | Got lather worked up somewhat slowly (9) |
| LARGHETTO — GOT LATHER anagrammed (worked up) | |
| 17a | Drink Strega on a regular basis (3) |
| TEA — sTrEgA, taking alternate letters (on a regular basis) | |
| 19a | Grip end of broken halter awkwardly (7) |
| ENTHRAL — The last letter (end) of brokeN and HALTER anagrammed (awkwardly) | |
| 21a | Angular figure seen in velour homburg (5) |
| RHOMB — The answer – a figure with angles – can be seen in velouR HOMBurg | |
| 22a | Spenser tenet reworked into part of speech (7,5) |
| PRESENT TENSE — SPENSER TENET anagrammed (reworked) | |
| Down | |
| 1d | Male said to be affected in unusual way? (5) |
| MIDAS — M (male) + SAID anagrammed (to be affected in unusual way), &lit. It is a broad description of King Midas, but not inaccurate, for it’s not usual for things to turn to gold at a touch | |
| 2d | Cue after grabbing a rest (9) |
| REMAINDER — REMINDER (cue) having taken in (after grabbing) A | |
| 3d | Humber Mud, a short story involving items found on the beach? (7,6) |
| BERMUDA SHORTS — HumBER MUD, A SHORT Story involving the answer | |
| 4d | Take possession of old trophy in 100 years (6) |
| OCCUPY — O (old) followed by CUP (trophy) in between C (100) and Y (years) | |
| 5d | A noted problem solver, I procure hotel undergoing refurbishment (7,6) |
| HERCULE POIROT — I PROCURE HOTEL anagrammed (undergoing refurbishment) | |
| 6d | Pack interior of streetcars (3) |
| RAM — This inner letters (interior) of tRAMs (streetcars) | |
| 7d | Shelf on which sits small toboggan (6) |
| SLEDGE — LEDGE (shelf) on which sits S (small) | |
| 12d | Where the residents have been spirited away? (5,4) |
| GHOST TOWN — A cryptic definition | |
| 13d | Detective Bjorn interrupts brief vacation (6) |
| HOLMES — ME (Bjorn) goes inside (interrupts) HOLS (brief vacation, “brief” referring to the shortened version of the word, not the length of the trip) | |
| 15d | Mark bored by Liberal, a notorious hard-liner (6) |
| STALIN — STAIN (mark) with insertion of (bored by) L (Liberal) | |
| 18d | Easily walk miles in Italian island heading north (5) |
| AMBLE — M (miles) in ELBE (Italian island) reversed (heading north, in a down entry) | |
| 20d | Pitch starts to turn at Rawalpindi (3) |
| TAR — The first letters of (starts to) Turn At Rawalpindi | |
I genuinely thought I was doing the 15×15 today. A comprehensive DNF. The culprits were MARX BROTHERS, BERMUDA SHORTS and HOLMES. MIDAS was a late entry with a ? since I was missing the first letter checker. I finally gave up after 19 minutes.
Ditto. Also I thought an ode was the whole poem and not a line???
. . . it’s lineS in the clue
Perhaps feeling the time pressure of needing to go out this felt like an ignominious DNF after 21+ today having revealed a couple to end the agony. It’s now apparent that we were in good company though. Perhaps we should have been able to get HOLMES from ‘detective’ and a couple of checkers but in our despond it wouldn’t come and as has been well pointed out above, the clueing doesn’t work on an android phone. 1a was within our capabilities but also fell to the reveal button. PRESENT TENSE went in quickly but with a MER as already discussed by others. BERMUDA SHORTS was biffed from checkers and a trust to some sort of anagram that required you to construct some short type of story that was required to make up the additional letters. Never saw the very clever hidden. Well done Bjorn! I also enjoyed DEMUR and UNPLUGGED though so there were some compensations for our shortfalls. Thanks to all.
A real struggle, getting there in 20:11 with liberal use of aids. I thought 13 down was going to be a reference to an unknown Scandinavian detective series! Liked BERMUDA SHORTS a lot, my COD.
Thanks to Bjorn and Kitty.
Having read various comments and seen the SNITCH pleased to be a DNF with only 3 missing (!). Some way beyond obscure to me though, e.g. Hull = EMU? Lines = ODE? And the definition of MIDAS seemed remarkably vague to me. Not sure I learned much from failing on such as those.
Required a lot of aids to get this finished but loved the hidden Bermuda shorts.
Possibly my slowest solve in years, but I kept coming back to it through the day until I got there. A stripped down 15×15, not a QC, in my opinion. Interesting that the 15ers didn’t seem to have many problems, reinforces my view that the biggie is going to remain beyond my abilities generally.
I came to this late in the day and it was a bit of a grind. (about 15 minutes actually). Marx Brothers and Midas needed you to be on Bjorn’s planet and many of these were far too hard for a quickie in my opinion – thanks though!
Please crossword editor if you are following this.
Can you please show the author in the online version?
My LOI was Holmes because I didn’t know who Bjorn was.
Very tough, but for there after numerous interruptions for tea and pondering it over in my head. I found today’s 15×15 easier.
Nevertheless, some fine clues.
I didn’t understand 13d until I saw the setter’s name on this blog. Liked ERODE and the long hidden.
DNF after 2 sessions somewhere the wrong side of 30 minutes. I failed on 1 ac, 1 dn and 5 dn. MER at present tense – not sure it’s a part of speech- and Midas. Otherwise all fair, if difficult. Thanks to Kitty for the enlightenment on those I didn’t get.
FOI – 9ac CARAMEL
LOI – DNF
COD – I marked 11ac UNPLUGGED on my way through but some of my later solves were just as good (BERMUDA SHORTS for example) but by then it had ceased to be a pleasure.
DNF. Not enjoyable. Some dodgy clues. Another one who had no idea what Bjorn was doing in a clue.
Hope the Times Crossword editor reads tftt. They need to get the QC sorted.
Thanks for the blog Kitty.
Count me among those who took longer on this than on the 15×15. What’s the point of ramping up the difficulty? I thought the TQC was there to get solvers hooked. They certainly wouldn’t have been hooked by this.
A tough one but some fun and ingenious clues. After 25 minutes (SCC door wide open) I had 4d and 19a unsolved: I managed to get OCCUPY but 19a resisted so dnf for me. Kitty’s blog revealed my stupidity: I had been convinced that the items found on the beach were shells so 3d in my book were BERMUDA SHELLS (what are they?) Duh – what a brilliant hidden! All now revealed. Thanks Bjorn and Kitty.
45 minutes
Impressive clueing, with a few exceptions – 1d, for example, where I thought of MIDAS, but ended up with MODUS, since ‘way’ seemed more feasible as an answer than ‘affected in unusual way’! But one of the best hiddens ever in 3d! I reckon it took me as long or longer than the big puzzle, though I was held up by inaccurately reading the alternative letters of Strega as ‘sea’ and putting it in confidently as the ‘drink’, which made the obvious GHOST TOWN impossible until I revisited it. Highly entertaining, but not really a Quick Crossword.
Yet another non-quick cryptic. Not fun!
Doing this online meant (unless I am being silly) one doesn’t know the setter’s name. Thus HOLMES is a very hard clue.
It felt as if I had forgotten everything I knew about solving cryptics, and I was blaming my phone and the distractions of hols with chatty friends. But you all have saved my sanity! This one took 54:27, my longest time in many months.
Thanks Bjorn, I think, thanks Kitty for the parsing, and thanks commenters for the company.
The hardest QC I have ever seen. Got all except Holmes in 6 days!