9 minutes for this very enjoyable offering from Hurley. 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 | Like this clue, a burden? (6) |
| ACROSS | |
| A, CROSS (burden). A cross to bear. | |
| 4 | Internet image, satnav, a target partly (6) |
| AVATAR | |
| Hidden in [partly] {satn}AV A TAR{get} partly | |
| 8 | One providing food in new career (enthralling time) (7) |
| CATERER | |
| Anagram [new] of CAREER containing [enthralling] T (time) | |
| 10 | Wrong about sappers captivating woman (5) |
| SIREN | |
| SIN (wrong) containing [about] RE (sappers – Royal Engineers) | |
| 11 | Frighten spy (5) |
| SPOOK | |
| Two meanings | |
| 12 | Modest accommodation with somewhere to sleep at start of tourist period (7) |
| COTTAGE | |
| COT (somewhere to sleep), T{ourist} [at start], AGE (period) | |
| 13 | Endless school lesson, private, recalled by a learner (9) |
| PERENNIAL | |
| PE (school lesson), then INNER (private) reversed [recalled], A, L (learner) | |
| 17 | Pacify beast, initially unkindly caged, shunning outsiders (7) |
| ASSUAGE | |
| ASS (beast), U{nkindly} [intially], {c}AGE{d} [shunning outsiders] | |
| 19 | Photographed at first with a large animal (5) |
| PANDA | |
| P{hotographed} [at first], AND (with), A | |
| 20 | Business I omitted from rant (5) |
| TRADE | |
| T{i}RADE (rant) [I omitted] | |
| 21 | Note delightful surprise — go back (7) |
| RETREAT | |
| RE (note), TREAT (delightful surprise) | |
| 22 | Roughly hustle investigator (6) |
| SLEUTH | |
| Anagram [roughly] of HUSTLE | |
| 23 | Out, like Prime Minister once after retiring (6) |
| ASLEEP | |
| AS (like) then PEEL (Prime Minister once) reversed [after retiring]. Sir Robert Peel was PM 1834-1835 and 1841-1846. | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Right to enter a Cricket Club eagerly seeking success primarily (6) |
| ACCESS | |
| A, CC (Cricket Club), E{agerly} + S{eeking} + S{uccess} [primarily]. You can parse CC under ‘primarily’ if you prefer, but it’s an abbreviation in its own right. | |
| 2 | Strangely goes ape — a first significant life event (4,2,7) |
| RITE OF PASSAGE | |
| Anagram [strangely] of GOES APE A FIRST | |
| 3 | Footballer, one refusing to work (7) |
| STRIKER | |
| Two meanings | |
| 5 | Six take examination — look in (5) |
| VISIT | |
| VI (six), SIT (take examination) | |
| 6 | Pretend not to notice extremely untidy dinner table, sadly (4,1,5,3) |
| TURN A BLIND EYE | |
| Anagram [sadly] of U{ntid}Y [extremely] DINNER TABLE | |
| 7 | Forest worker’s team from Glasgow cutting back (6) |
| RANGER | |
| RANGER{s} (team from Glasgow) [cutting back] | |
| 9 | One telling tales near court is out of order (9) |
| RACONTEUR | |
| Anagram [out of order] of NEAR COURT | |
| 14 | The setter’s favourite American drive? (7) |
| IMPETUS | |
| I’M (the setter’s), PET (favourite), US (American) | |
| 15 | Part of exotic act using New World plant (6) |
| CACTUS | |
| Hidden in [part of] {exoti}C ACT US{ing} | |
| 16 | Friend coming up to power computer (6) |
| LAPTOP | |
| PAL (friend) reversed [coming up], TO, P (power) | |
| 18 | Following drink, right lively? (5) |
| ALERT | |
| ALE (drink), RT (right) | |
Biffed the long downs, trusting the anagrist was all there, and PERENNIAL. RACONTEUR took a bit of time. 5:40.
I thought this was going to be easy, as across and avatar were write-ins, and then I was able to biff rite of passage and turn a blind eye. But I bogged down, couldn’t see the obvious perennial and was determined to use Eden as the PM.
Time: 6:43
8.23. Started fast but was held up by a few at the end like ASLEEP and PERENNIAL. Thank you Jack and Hurley.
Annoying! All done in 6.20 but managed to enter RrTREAT for my last one in. It had all been going so well. Enjoyed seeing ASSUAGE and PANDA appear before my eyes.
One of our fastest times at 12.48. Started with across and went down the left side first. LOI asleep took a while as though it would end MP before spotting the answer and parsing post submit. Liked cottage in particular, very nice.
Thanks Hurley and Jack.
After a quick glance at the anagrist I bunged in ‘recounter’ for RACONTEUR, causing lots of problems later on. Lots of biffs today. Liked ASSUAGE, SIREN and ACROSS.
Thanks Jack and setter.
‘Recounter’ is what caused me to take (waste) time getting RACONTEUR.
I wanted to bung in ‘recounter’ but refrained as it lacked the A. But then struggled to get past REC…
Had the same issue but the QC was nice and quick today.
Ditto – pleased it wasn’t just me 😊
Another here
Also fell into the careless recounter error but soon noticed it had no ‘a’. Biffed several inc Rite of Passage and ASLEEP without parsing PEEL. Worried when I saw ‘The setter’ fearing it to relate to the setter’s name which is not shown on phone, so relieved that ‘Im’ worked. Good mix of quick and slow for me to squeeze in before the doors open to the club with 19.20.
Thanks Hurley and Jack
11:22 Turned a blind eye to right of passage with perennial siren, all half parsed so thanks Jack for explaining. A Goldilocks QC; nice one Hurley.
No across on first pass, five downs. Ended up with six of each.
A quick solve that would have been a lot quicker had I not joined the ‘recounter’ club, which caused me all sorts of problems with my LOI.
Started with ACROSS and finished with PERENNIAL in 6.01.
Thanks to Jackkt and Hurley
7:58. Should have been under 7 mins but spent a while wondering if shock could mean spy before finally getting the actually quite obvious SPOOK.
Just like the old days! An enjoyable QC that I finished off in my fastest time for yonks. I don’t really follow my times these days but this showed up on my iPad as under 13 mins which makes up for my disaster with Mara on Saturday.
Thanks to both.
Add me to the recounter club! Other than that I quickly solved from ACROSS to PERENNIAL in 5:49. CsOD to the animal clues ASSUAGE and PANDA. 5:49 Thanks Jack
A very enjoyable solve in 10:37, though with my LOI PERENNIAL left unparsed as the clock stopped. For some reason RACONTEUR went straight in, never thought of the alternative that seems to have caught so many.
Thank you Jack for the blog
13.33. Nice. 😊
Pi ❤️
Very enjoyable QC taking something under 40 minutes.
Inevitably the hidden CACTUS was LOI and ASSUAGE, ALERT and ASLEEP all took a bit of working out – I must have A blindness.
COD: ACROSS.
Thanks JACK for the blog and explaining the parsing of PERENNIAL.
6:25 for the solve. ASSUAGE and ALERT holding me up at the end and had to refrain from bunging ShOcK in for SPOOK. The clues for PERENNIAL and ASLEEP needed a little bit of unwinding to confirm
Thanks to Jackkt and Hurley
6:55 (Battle of the Winwaed, Oswiu of Bernicia defeats Penda of Mercia.)
Fastest time for a while. LOI ASLEEP after stopping trying to squeeze ASQUITH in.
Biffed PERENNIAL. Thanks Jack for explaining the parsing.
Lovely – almost too easy, they just all went in – thank you, Hurley. LOI ASLEEP. It had to be RANGER but couldn’t quite parse it despite sort of knowing there’s a football team of that name somewhere up there – thank you, jackkt.
Well, this wavelength-friendly QC has saved me a bit of time this morning. A fast solve, much enjoyed. LOI COTTAGE – many so-called cottages around here are not that modest in size.
Liked many inc POI RANGER, ASLEEP, SPOOK.
Have to admit I biffed then parsed in most cases – the long ones seemed obvious, fortunately.
Many thanks, Jack.
I found this more challenging than most commenters seem to have, taking over 29 minutes to limp home. Clearly not on the right wavelength. LOI RACONTEUR.
15:09 but with a poorly thought through SHOCK for SPOOK. It matches one of the definitions, it fitted but two out of three is never enough. Tried to think why shock=spy, but never corrected it.
COD ASSUAGE. Word first encountered as a choirboy in the hymn Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, (ever flows their thirst to assuage). Abbots Leigh, the tune, is one of my favourites. Not sure I’ve encountered the word anywhere else.
The Lincoln sympathy letter to Mrs Bixby, read out in Saving Private Ryan, includes it.
I think ‘assuage feelings of guilt’ is a fairly common expression.
Also in the Recounter club, but very quickly fixed for a one-cup finish all fully parsed.
From ACROSS to SLEUTH, via RACONTEUR at first biff, in 6:03. A gentle start to the week. Thanks Hurley and Jack.
4.27
PERENNIAL not immediately obvious but opened things up nicely. Thanks Jackkt and Hurley.
6 minutes for me.
Everything went straight in apart from SPOOK where I had to resist SHOCK several times.
LOI COTTAGE.
A nice QC; lots of good clues.
David
A really good start to the week: 12mins fully parsed is about as fast as I can go these days. The two long down answers joined several other first pass write-ins and then it just became a matter of filling in the gaps. CoD to Perennial for the parsing. Invariant
Great time…
22:48
Joining the RECOUNTER club pushed me into the SCC.
Nice crossword – ACROSS induced a groan whilst IMPETUS solicited a smile.
Thanks to Hurley and jackkt
Ha ha I did RECOUNTER also, which doesn’t have an A of course. So finished up on 11:09.
A really enjoyable QC. About 25 mins.
Thanks Hurley and jackkt
Time: 15:31
Stuck on RACONTEUR (couldn’t not see RECOUNTER) and PERENNIAL (PERPETUAL)
Found this to be very enjoyable. Managed in 30 minutes. ACROSS was such a clever clue. Didn’t know what “sappers” meant in 10a, so interesting to learn it’s linked to the Royal engineers. Thank you for the blog 😁
Derived from the French word “sappe” — a derivation of the archaic French word for spade — the name became connected with military engineers who would dig covered trenches that allowed them to approach the walls of a fort that was under siege.
My dad was a Royal Engineer 😁
Interesting. Knew Sapper, but not le spade.
With five acrosses missing after going through them I thought this was going to be a struggle, but the downs all went straight in and then I mopped up. COD to SIREN, where I was tricked into thinking it was going to be R***E with a three letter female name in the middle.
All done in 07:05 and already outside the top 100, so this was clearly an easy one! Many thanks Hurley and Jack.
As a recent joiner to this forum, is it bad form (or indeed incorrect) to suggest an alternative answer to 18d: “following drink, right lively?” Although it does not fit in with other clues, is “astir” an acceptable answer to this clue, as well as the correct “alert”? If I am correct, does this happen often?
Well, fitting your proposed answer with the rest of the clues is a very important part of solving. Only if the letters are unchecked can one propose an alternative answer.
Many thanks for your reply and making the point about the unchecked letters.
But still- ASTI plus R is clever!
I strongly suspect that I have seen the clue before!
Welcome, Seagull, there’s no problem at all mentioning alternative answers to clues. [Edit: I’ve just seen vinyl1’s response posted as I was writing this, and of course he’s correct as far as appeals to the umpire are concerned. My reply is more general in terms of discussions here where contributors sometimes mention they had an alternative answer that worked for them until checkers made it impossible]
I would agree that taking the clue on it’s own (‘cold’ as I believe it’s termed) ASTI + R might be a valid answer, and indeed ‘astir’ is listed as a synonym for ‘lively’ in my Collins thesaurus.
But then of course we have to remember that this is a crossword puzzle where other entries in the grid need to be taken into consideration, and opinions differ as to whether or not clues should be permitted that rely solely on that as a factor when solving.
My personal opinion is that they should because crosswords are intended to be approached holistically, otherwise they wouldn’t have a grid, just a list of clues to be solved in isolation.
I don’t know what The Times policy is in this regard (if they have one), but judging by the rare occurrence of such queries – maybe one or two at most per week – it would appear that the setters try to avoid such situations as far as possible.
Thanks, Jackkt, for taking the time to answer my question. Your “holistic” point is well taken, although it can be a little dull if the alternative answer is the first one entered in the area and time is spent trying to fit other answers in. Your opinion that this is a rare occurrence is good news.
17 minutes, at least 2 of which were spent pondering over 13 and 17ac as I had recounted in at 9dn. Otherwise a trouble-free solve. The 2 long down clues plus perennial biffed from crossers without parsing.
FOI – 1ac ACROSS
LOI – 13ac PERENNIAL
COD – 6dn TURN A BLIND EYE – lovely surface
Thanks to Hurley and Jack
6.20 Another simple one. LOI CACTUS. Thanks Jack and Hurley.
12:57
No real problems today but failed to parse LOI SIREN.
5:25
Gentle Monday morning fare – didn’t fully get the wordplay of PERENNIAL when I wrote it in, but then was thinking IN rather than INNER for private.
Thanks Jack and Hurley
From TFtT Admin: Sorry, Debbie, I have deleted the content of your post because it revealed an answer in today’s 15×15 puzzle. jackkt.
Hello Debbie,
May I (politely) suggest that you delete or rephrase your post, as it rather gives the game away on one of the clues in the 15×15 and therefore could spoil things somewhat for those who haven’t yet attempted it?
Many thanks,
SRC
It’s been deleted – still learning the rules of all this – sorry
No worries!
No worries
A terrific start to the week, as I avoided the clutches of SCC by one whole minute. This is an increasingly uncommon event for me these days, unfortunately. In fact, the top half went in so fast that I was starting to wonder whether a PB might be on the cards. The lower half of the grid put paid to that idea, but still didn’t present too many troublesome problems.
My favourite clue today was (my FOI) ACROSS and my L3I were IMPETUS, RETREAT and PERENNIAL.
Many thanks to Jack for his blog and to Hurley for producing a genuine QC.
8:48 A motley crew indeed- RACONTEUR, RANGER, SPOOK, SLEUTH, SIREN, CATERER, STRIKER all in one place.
Was slowed down by not knowing the unguessable crosswordese of sappers = re, spent my time thinking it was a word for sappers going around (captivating) W for woman, meaning wrong. The rest came fairly easily.
Yes, we do encounter a good deal of Crosswordese, but Sappers=RoyalEngineers=RE is just normal military-speak, I reckon.
5:27
Nice easy start to the week, although I confess I didn’t have PERENNIAL parsed (thanks Jack).
ACROSS to COTTAGE without pause.
Thanks Hurley.
Late on parade this afternoon with the QC, so a rare afternoon solve for me. A good solid puzzle from Hurley, a setter who always hits the mark as far as I’m concerned. An under target finish of 8.27, delayed only with trying to solve my LOI PERENNIAL which eluded me for a while. RACONTEUR went straight in, and the alternative use of letters fortunately never occurring to me.
16 mins…
Slightly frustrated I didn’t do better than this, but after a rapid start I became unstuck on 13ac, bunging in “Perpetual” before realising nothing else worked with it. Once I’d unwound that and 9dn “Raconteur”, it was a pleasant solve for a Monday.
FOI – 1ac “Across”
LOI – 9dn “Raconteur”
COD – 14dn “Impetus”
Thanks as usual!
11:18, with everything parsed bar my LOI PERENNIAL. I found this a bit of an odd solving experience: the first four and last four acrosses went in quickly, leaving a big blank area in the middle. But the downs were friendlier and it all came together in the end. I’m glad to see I am not alone in trying RECOUNTER at 9d.
Thanks to Hurley and Jackkt.
5.45. Pretty much a write in. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Very quick until it wasn’t! Slowed down considerably trying to work out the parsing for ASLEEP (which I never did). Had perpetual for PERENNIAL for a while but it didn’t parse. LOI TRADE. Liked ASSUAGE. Many thanks Jack and Hurley.
Our last 2 or 3, inc. PERENNIAL and ASLEEP (couldn’t think of Peel until we had LAPTOP), seemed to take their time going in but our 7:23 finish still ranks as notably faster than normal for us. Thanks, Jack and Hurley.
I was Hurleying (sic) along to a fast finish until I hit Assuage and Perennial, neither helped by my bad Biff of Recounter, instead of Raconteur. Thanks Hurley and Jack