A jolly number from Pedro, with some witty definitions, neat doubles and nothing to frighten the horses. [On edit: this seems to have been a proverbial wavelength puzzle, clicking for some people but not others. QUITCH currently running at 107.] There are some cracking clues in here and it greatly entertained me on my way to 05:53 (an Excellent Day). I hope you all enjoyed it too.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Notice evidence of measles? (4) |
| SPOT – double definition. The ? after measles indicates a definition by example, since spots have other causes too. | |
| 4 | Briars to upset tree specialist (8) |
| ARBORIST – anagram [upset] of “briars to”. | |
| 8 | Leaders in Home Office intend to hold line over purchase arrangement (4,4) |
| HOME LOAN – HO [leaders in Home Office] + MEAN [intend] containing [to hold] L [line] and O [over – thanks to Pi for spotting the omission!]. A HOME LOAN is a mortgage. | |
| 9 | Former soldier retaining second garment (4) |
| VEST – VET [former soldier] containing [retaining] S [second]. | |
| 10 | Get rid of boat in Asia (4) |
| JUNK – double definition. The English word “junk” for a ship comes from the Portugese “junco”, which was how they in turn had rendered the Malay word “jong” used of large Javanese trading ships. | |
| 11 | Feature of St Paul’s criticism, mainly of the family (8) |
| DOMESTIC – DOME [feature of St Paul’s Cathedral] + STIC{k} [criticism mainly]. | |
| 12 | Austere saint welcomes joke for the most part (6) |
| STRICT – ST [saint] contains [welcomes] TRIC{k} [joke for the most part]. | |
| 14 | A second pupil, not entirely perceptive (6) |
| ASTUTE – A [a] + S [second] + TUTE{e} [pupil not entirely]. I liked the way that the definition is actually the reverse of the surface meaning. | |
| 16 | Pay ranges in shifts (8) |
| EARNINGS – anagram [shifts] of “ranges in”. | |
| 18 | Book on Dalton’s debut as film spy (4) |
| BOND – B [book] + ON [on] + D [Dalton’s debut]. Timothy Dalton famously turned down Bond roles twice: once in the 1970s, when he was asked to replace Sean Connery (Dalton thought he was too young and Roger Moore got the part) and once in the 1990s, when he was asked to renew an expired contract and refused. In between he starred in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill. Wonderful surface – look at “on”, hiding in plain sight – and my COD. | |
| 19 | Present favourable impression of quick trip (4) |
| SPIN – double definition (the latter as in “let’s go for a spin”). | |
| 20 | Leaves drinker finally imprisoned by magistrate for drinking session (3,5) |
| TEA BREAK – TEA [leaves] + R [drinker finally] going inside [imprisoned by] BEAK [magistrate]. A lovely definition. | |
| 22 | Various arts with inks revealing ancient script (8) |
| SANSKRIT – anagram [various] of “arts” and “inks”. | |
| 23 | That chap backed the French scoundrel (4) |
| HEEL – HE [that chap] + EL [backed the French, i.e. “le” reversed]. | |
| Down | |
|---|---|
| 2 | Manufactured item supporting pipe (7) |
| PRODUCT – PRO [supporting] + DUCT [pipe]. | |
| 3 | Minor change that’s initially not very effective? (5) |
| TWEAK – T [that’s initially] + WEAK [not very effective]. | |
| 4 | Trouble beginning to affect party (3) |
| ADO – A [beginning to affect] + DO [party]. | |
| 5 | Embargoes limiting movement of money? Not at all (2,2,5) |
| BY NO MEANS – BANS [embargoes] containing [limiting] an anagram [movement] of “money”. | |
| 6 | Come back to minister, one with seat (7) |
| REVISIT – REV [minister] + I [one] + SIT [seat]. | |
| 7 | American aboard vessel cut down oriental food (5) |
| SUSHI – SHI{p} is “vessel cut down”; US [American] is inside [aboard] that. | |
| 11 | One setting off to read, not fidgeting (9) |
| DETONATOR – anagram [fidgeting] of “to read not”. Another lovely, clever, misleading definition! | |
| 13 | Top prize money for session of cricket (7) |
| INNINGS – remove the first letter [top] of {w}INNINGS [prize money]. | |
| 15 | Someone scolding in manner carried weight (7) |
| TONNAGE – NAG [someone scolding] inside [in] TONE [manner]. The weight of the cargo being carried by a ship is the TONNAGE. On edit: this was my LOI, as for many. I had it the wrong way round, thinking that “ton” would be “weight” and that underneath it (so that it “carried” ton/weight) would be a word meaning “manner”, with the whole thing meaning “someone scolding”. It wasn’t an easy clue but fortunately I did quite a few shipping cases in my youth and so the word popped into my head. | |
| 17 | Main star appearing in surreal phantasy (5) |
| ALPHA – hidden. | |
| 18 | New baby? Husband and family mostly bowled over (5) |
| BIRTH – reading backwards [bowled over], this is H [husband] and TRIB{e} [family mostly]. | |
| 21 | Skill in stage role (not lead) (3) |
| ART – a “part” is a “stage role”; remove the first letter [not lead]. | |
Pedro had the goods today, I found a lot of this to be pretty tough and finished in 12.09. The top half flew in but then I hit a wall, and even obvious answers like EARNINGS, INNINGS and BOND (missed the ‘on’ in plain sight) eluded me. Putting in TEA PARTY w/o actually thinking about it caused mayhem in the SE, but as Templar said some cracking clues in here. Thanks to both.
Sluggish today. Thought TEA party too but held off as it didn’t parse before seeing BEAK for judge, which always reminds me of ‘up before the beak’. Couldn’t see DOMESTIC and TWEAK for too long and TONNAGE was a hope as didn’t associate ‘nag’ with scolding. PRODUCT also came slowly until JUNK and TWEAK went in. STRICT last in as initially read ‘austere’ as ‘Aussie’. Great info on Bond, Templar, thanks.
And thanks to setter.
16 minutes, missing my extended target because I messed up in the SE corner where having discounted TEA PARTY I was unable to think of an alternative second word. We have had BEAK for ‘judge’ before but ‘magistrate’ was one step too far away to bring it to mind, especially as my go-to synonyms for that are ‘doge’ and ‘reeve’ and I had to discount them first. Dithering over all that delayed BIRTH and my LOI, TONNAGE
As above, I made good progress until I ground to a halt in SE. Last in were BIRTH and TONNAGE but DETONATOR took longer than it should despite having D-T-N-T-R. Oh well, good cryptic clues with disguise and deception thrown in. Finally crossed the line under 30 mins with a bit of a groan.
Thanks Pedro and Templar
Really enjoyed this and managed 12.08 which for me is speedy. I was another who thought “tea party” before other letters pushed me to correct answer. Required Mrs PP to give me “tonnage”. Thanks Pedro and Templar.
Add us to the tea party! Had the letters for earnings written down for most of the solve but in the end it was LOI, just couldn’t see it.
Much to enjoy in 22.20, on a fine morning heralding what looks to be an unbelievable warm and sunny bank holiday weekend, yay.
Thanks Templar and Pedro
8:52
I biffed BY NO MEANS, SUSHI, DETONATOR, & BIRTH, parsing post-submission. 18ac slowed me down because I at first took ‘on Dalton’s debut’ to indicate an initial D (had no idea who Dalton was). But I really wasted time at 8ac, where I couldn’t believe that ‘Home’ in the clue would produce HOME in the solution.
Yes, it’s not elegant. I decided not to say so, though, because I’d enjoyed the rest of the puzzle so much!
Followed the well-trodden path to TEA party which made TONNAGE and BIRTH both very hard indeed. Started so well with all the first five going in on first reading – although not without some effort – but then just two more acrosses and the hard work began. All green in 14.37.
Similar experiences as above slowed me down to 12.31. Thought HOME LOAN was rather clunky with the repetition of HOME from the clue (and per Kevin)
15:25, which was speedy for me. Very enjoyable, but I was slow until I got the critical mass of checkers, whereupon the answers slotted in with greater ease.
Pi ❤️
PS @Templar – great blog as ever, but I think you’re missing an O (over) in the parsing of HOME-LOAN.
Ooo thanks Pi, will fix
10:24 and much enjoyed. I also thought of TEA party but couldn’t make Paty into a magistrate, so left it to the end when the checkers helped me home.
Many thanks Templar for the blog. But in the clue for HOME LOAN, I think the wordplay needs to include “over gives O”, as it is LO that is included in MEAN.
I wasn’t on Pedro’s wavelength today which is maybe why I didn’t enjoy it as much as most of the early commenters seem to have done. The SE proved particularly slow to reveal its secrets.
I did a double take at ‘home’ appearing in the clue and the answer in 8a but on a positive note I thought BOND was excellent.
Started with SPOT and finished with BIRTH in 7.54.
Thanks to Templar and Pedro
Mostly straightforward, but with a few tricky ones thrown in as well. Couldn’t think of Junk until I had the K from Tweak to go with the U, and loi Tonnage certainly took an age to see – I blame the wild goings on at the earlier tea party. Down to the last couple of window seats by the time that one went in.
CoD to that troublesome Tea Break, just ahead of the second Innings. My thanks to Templar and Pedro. Invariant
4:57. Another unparsed TEA PARTY to start with here until my COD, the new baby came along. Nice puzzle with lovely surfaces throughout. Thank-you Pedro and Templar.
Tough. I never seem to find Pedro’s wavelength. I was slow throughout, entering answers like HOME LOAN wondering why I was spending time on it. I was even slower in the SE where I shared the TEA PARTY biff until it became untenable. TONNAGE and BIRTH took forever.
I am clearly out of step in not enjoying this puzzle, despite recognising that there were some clever clues. Thanks to Templar for helping with some of the parsing.
8:35
Another TEA PARTY here, and it took me far too long to dig myself out of that. Also slow to see HOME LOAN though didn’t connect that HOME was in both clue and answer.
Thanks Templar and Pedro
15:12 – a quick time for me, but largely through some inspired biffing as unable to parse quite a few! Thanks for the explanations.
15:22 for the Quitch solve. Just struggles to come up with synonyms all over but got there eventually. Noting there were at least four partial deletions with DOMESTIC, STRICT, ASTUTE, BIRTH but they weren’t the only holdups. Like our esteemed blogger I thought BOND was a standout clue both for its simplicity and surface.
Thanks to Templar and Pedro
Quite a few solvers who are normally quicker than me finished in a time slower than mine, so I assume I was on relatively good form to finish in 7.25. Didn’t initially think of TEA PARTY which helped, otherwise I might have biffed it. I didn’t even notice the clunkiness of the repeat of the word ‘home’ in HOMELOAN, otherwise I wouldn’t have put it straight in.
My thanks to Pedro and Templar.
I thought it a bit tricky and got delayed in the SE.
15d tonnage. Took a lot of parsing!
18a COD Bond. Eventually Dalton meant something to me, and bingo.
8a Home loan NHO (I think) but the wordplay spelt it out. Added to Cheating Machine.
11d Detonator. Didn’t we get that recently in the 15*15?
Back after a few days away, I found this QC from Pedro quite challenging. I was very held up by my last two- TEA BREAK and LOI TONNAGE. 16 minutes in all.
Some excellent clues; favourites were BIRTH and PRODUCT.
15d hard for a QC; I read it as TONE carrying a word for weight-very clever misdirection.
David
7:58 – not on wavelength / it was hard. JUNK, TONNAGE and TEA BREAK were the main ones to hold me up. Good fun though.
Great QC. I was very quick until SE corner. Knew TEA Party must be wrong then final PDMS with BIRTH and TONNAGE led me to BREAK.
Must remember NAG in future.
Yes, I was doubtful about the word Home appearing twice but it had to be.
Liked ASTUTE, JUNK, and DETONATOR as well as my LOsI.
Many thanks, Templar.
14 mins…
Good puzzle with a wide range of clues. 18ac “Bond” was one of many potential COD’s – worth checking out Dalton in Doom Patrol which is currently running on Prime (if you like that kind of thing).
FOI – 1ac “Spot”
LOI – 20ac “Tea Break”
COD – 2dn “Product” – always makes me chuckle.
Thanks as usual!
Found myself floundering with this one. Having thought of TEA PARTY like others, was very slow in the SE until TONNAGE got me going again. However it was all invain as I carelessly biffed SANSCRIT. Eejit! Just over eleven minutes WOE. Thanks Pedro and Templar.
Was going great guns until I went for TEA PARTY, even though it didn’t parse, so that held me up in the SE. Thought of TONNAGE but couldn’t initially parse it, then HEEL led to BIRTH and eventually BREAK. More haste, less speed!
Very enjoyable along with the previous week’s QCs. NHO Heel for a scoundrel and Tonnage had me flummoxed, but a great clue !
Thanks
31 minutes.
Another miserable performance. Massively behind my comparators.
No matter how hard I try, my brain is simply not wired in the right way for these puzzles.
We’re all made differently, Gary : many people think a crossword is a waste of time, pointless, worthless, and full of obscurities and far-fetchednesses. If instead you, like me, enjoy them, then enjoy them; but don’t expect necessarily to be up there with the experts, or be cross with yourself when you don’t (and don’t think “fail to”) match their timings. For me it would spoil the enjoyment and only add stress, to start a stopwatch at all. Relax and enjoy!
Thank you – wise words which I will try to follow.
A pleasure, Gary, and nice to hear from you. There is perhaps one other thing. If you feel the need for a yardstick, some way of measuring your achievement (even if it sometimes seems rather to be a lack of ~ ), may I suggest finding a way of logging your performance so that you see how, year on year, little by little, it improves? That would/should give you a real sense of progress, without the insidious comparison with others whose make-up is simply different from ours. For example last year I managed to complete 57%; this year so far I’m running at 61% – slow progress indeed, but at least in the right direction! Warmest wishes.
Another good suggestion, thank you. I did keep a weekly log when I began to achieve regular finishes, but then I stopped for some reason. I will start again.
I’m glad to see that your success rate is improving. As you say, it’s going in the right direction and will hopefully improve further during the rest of the year.
10:36 with LOI TONNAGE, still not parsed before I can here.
No one has mentioned it yet, but ALPHA is used for the main star in a constellation, most famously in Alpha Centuri. That accounts for the “star” in the clue.
I thought this quite hard so was surprised to finish in just under 15 minutes which is about average to me. I counted 7 clues which require truncation of words in the solution which generally slow me down.
Thanks Templar and Pedro.
All bar four. Didn’t care for TEA from leaves and was thinking JP rather than the slang. Didn’t get birth or heel or spin.
I only changed produce to product after assuming 12ac started ST whereas the ST was split and the second T came from tric-k.
Thanks setter and blogger
Another completed puzzle – but! Two errors – both of which fitted but didn’t retro-fit the clues! Nevertheless I’m catching up, though not particularly interested in joining the under 10s! What else will I do in the cafe at lunchtime?
11:01 with a stupid typo at 4ac with arbArist for a DNF on what has been otherwise a fairly good week so far. JUNK and TONNAGE held me up at the end. Could hardly believe HOME appearing in both the clue and answer for 8ac; most definitely thought there was a rule forbidding that.
SCC and a tough solve (but the sun is shining and I keep getting distracted). Started fast and finished slowly: DOMESTIC took for ever but it unleashed REVISIT (which I had mentally decided was REVERSE). Then ASTUTE fell but I wasn’t feeling it at all! I was unsure if HOME was allowed if the word was in the clue, but it had to be. Enjoyed TWEAK and entered BOND without thinking. Lots to enjoy and to learn, so thanks Pedro and Templar.
Another on-wavelength here at 5:12, perhaps limbered up with (a bit of a slog on) the biggie first. Really liked it, and then liked it some more on coming here to find some of the subtleties like Timothy Dalton – thanks Pedro and Templar.
Miles off wavelength, just snuck in before fifteen min towel throw-in limit.
Another who had to revisit TEA PARTY but eventually beak occurred. Still took a while to get TONNAGE and never did parse BIRTH thinking the B was from bowled. All my own fault, good puzzle with cleverly hidden definitions. COD DETONATOR. Thanks Pedro and Templar.
Unparsed TEA PARTY caused some trouble, biffedHOME LOAN, whilst not being 100%, thanks to Templar for elucidation
This resident of the SCC really enjoyed this QC. I feared the “ancient script” would be a NHO but all was well with SANSKRIT.
Last one in (with fingers crossed) was HOME LOAN, thinking we coildn’t possibly have “home” in the clue and the answer (so also others above)
8.58 Fortunately I thought of beak and not tea party. TONNAGE was biffed and I finished with DETONATOR. Thanks Templar and Pedro.
P.S. There’s maybe a bit of a financial nina with DOMESTIC EARNINGS, JUNK BOND, HOME LOAN and VEST.
DNF. I gave up with four clues unsolved. When I started these QCs six years ago Pedro was generally kind and achievable, but I find that’s often not the case these days.
SPOT and ARBORIST went straight in and they were quickly followed by four of their dependants (PRODUCT, TWEAK, ADO and SUSHI). A great start that, whilst my pace slowed somewhat, I was able to capitalise on through the mid-phase. And so, with around 25 minutes on the clock I faced my last six clues. Not bad for me.
It wasn’t until a full 10 minutes later that I solved the first two of those six clues – REVISIT (I had tried REVerse and Riposte) and ASTUTE. Irritation and annoyance had started to creep in so I went off and did something useful for a couple of hours.
Refreshed from my break and armed with a nice cup of tea I set about my final four clues (T_A _____, B____, T_N____ and ____) with renewed enthusiasm. I threw in the towel 15 minutes later, having made no further progress.
50 minutes, but I never saw the finish line.
Thanks to Templar (“nothing to frighten the horses”?) and Pedro.
Templar, I was on wavelength and came home in 7:01. I solved BIRTH, which I really liked, before TEA BREAK so TEA party never occurred to me. LOI TONNAGE and COD to BOND. Thanks Templar
10:44 which now seems a bit better given other times above. Lots of clever stuff to enjoy in this particularly cod and loi Tonnage.
9:53 for us so faster than our average though we found one or two clues tricky including our LOI TONNAGE. Like Kevin, HOME in both Q and A also gave us pause for thought. And, though we avoided biffing TEA PARTY its replacement held us up for a while. Thanks, all.
Just 15 on 15 x 15. Another bad day.
I thought I was on the right wavelength but we must’ve been slightly off because while I started off strong filling about half of the puzzle almost without thinking I hit some severe destructive interference, if you’ll allow me to extend the wavelength metaphor, getting absolutely stuck and crawling through the remainder.
LOI was TEA BREAK. Maybe it’s because I’m not British, but tea break is not a common term to me so it took ages to land on it and beak meaning magistrate was absolutely bonkers to me.
Time: 2:28:11 😳
An annoying fail.
I invented a Damaskin as a feature of St Paul’s, being “criticism, mainly” dam(n) “of the family” as kin.
We finished it (including parsing) at just over 30 minutes (our cut-off time). The top half went well to begin with, but after that, progress became sluggish. We found some of the clues tricky. We were another TEA PARTY initially but took it out as it didn’t parse. Like others, we thought it odd that 8A clue and answer both contained the word HOME. There did seem to be an excessive number of clues requiring words to be cut short.
LOI TONNAGE.
Somehow this didn’t quite hit the spot for us today.
Found this hard, but with plenty of time (away from home, waiting for a library to open) managed to finish it eventually. SE corner hardest, LOI TONNAGE. NHO scoundrel = HEEL but apparently it had to be. (Funny: I think I’ve only alan wade above as company there – everyone else knew it?)