The following is optional reading, and not related to this puzzle specifically:
Lockdown has found me reflecting on the nature of these QCs and other cryptic puzzles, and I have been wondering if the satisfaction index from solving can be attributed to any definable characteristics of the puzzle. I’m still thinking this through, but I think that the QCs generally have a number of dimensions, some of which are OBJECTIVE (or measurable) and others of which are SUBJECTIVE (or not easily measurable).
OBJECTIVE dimensions include the following:
- DENSITY – Which I define as the number of black squares in the grid of 169 squares of a QC. For example, today’s grid has 48 black squares to give a density of 28%. This is quite low compared to the straw poll I took of the last few puzzles I blogged, which ranged from 48 to 56 black squares (28% to 33% density).
- BREVITY – By which I mean the word-count for all of the clues. Today the number of words used to clue all of the answers is 128, or 5.3 per clue. Again, compared to the same straw poll, this is quite low – the range in the poll was 128 to 190 words in the clues, or a range from 5.3 to 7.3 per clue.
- SPEED – my times range from a little below 10 minutes to around 25 minutes. I am rarely quicker or slower than that range, and I target between 10 and 15 minutes per completion.
- FIRST LETTER CHECKER – The presence of answers in the first row or column will automatically provide a number of first-letter-checkers, and this type of grid seems to be favoured over grids that lack them. I suspect that, with a little thought, the grid types could be measurable for this attribute.
- As far as objective measures go, I think I prefer low density, concisely clued puzzles, with a high index of first-letter-checkers, but I do like a workout, so I am not disheartened when my time is beyond my target range. Whilst SPEED is measurable, it is also very personal from solver to solver. My understanding is that the measurement of SPEED was the original objective of these blogs. It’s what I often refer to as the Rotterometer – an objective measure of speed for this particular solver, or x Kevins, a relative measure of speed compared to a regular contributor to the blogs.
SUBJECTIVE dimensions, by their nature, are much more difficult to define, but we often hear words such as the following in bloggers’ comments. I don’t think these are measurable as such, but they matter:
- Wit or humour
- General Knowledge – maybe a GKI or Index could be definable as an objective dimension, although one solver’s General Knowledge can be another’s jargon or mystery.
- Approachability – is this just a euphemism for easiness?
- Themes and Ninas – these are almost universally admired and appreciated, and generally add to the satisfaction index, particularly when spotted.
I’d be interested in others’ thoughts if you have any, but maybe not on this blog – feel free to send me a message if you want to add to any debate on the above. If there is interest, I’ll collate and publish any thoughts, perhaps in a seperate blog.
Now back to Wurm’s puzzle.
Across
1 Stickler for niceties hurt in physical training (13)
PERFECTIONIST – This is an anagram (hurt) of [FOR NICETIES] inside PT (physical training).
8 Large ears reshaped in surgical beam (5)
LASER – Another anagram (reshaped), this time of [L{arge} EARS]. LASERs are concentrated beams of light, often used to cut flesh in surgical procedures, but with a much wider range of uses than that.
9 On piano in group to admire (7)
RESPECT – RE (on, regarding) and P{iano} inside SECT (group).
10 Get wheels in middle for train (7)
CORTEGE – GET (wheels = reversed) to give TEG inside CORE (middle). A CORTEGE is a ‘train’ of attendants, a retinue.
11 Second story is boring (5)
STALE – S{econd} and TALE (story). At first I wondered about the equivalence of STALE and BORING, but either can, at a stretch, mean tedious, so I’ll let it pass.
13 Boat from Oxford University set off (9)
OUTRIGGER – O{xford} U{niversity} and TRIGGER (set off). An OUTRIGGER can be a boat with projecting rowlocks, or a canoe with a projecting spar supported on a float. The first is used by crews in the University boat race, the second by the many indigenous tribes that appeared in the films we watched as young boys. To me, OU is more readily interpreted as Open University, being a graduate of that institution, rather than the other place.
17 Arterial route in Australia or Tasmania (5)
AORTA – Hidden answer in [australi}A OR TA{smania}.
19 Draw attention from cuts in English energy (7)
ECLIPSE – CLIPS (cuts) hidden inside E{nglish} and E{nergy}.
20 Shark vessel circles swirling fog (7)
DOGFISH – DISH (vessel) surrounds (circles) an anagram (swirling) of [FOG]. DOGFISH is a generic name for small shark of various kinds.
22 Stove at home once more (5)
AGAIN – AGA (stove) and IN (at home). After a tradename appeared last week, here we have another in AGA, from the original Swedish manufacturers.
23 Teaches ceramics class for geeks (13)
TRAINSPOTTERS – TRAINS (teaches) and POTTERS (ceramics class). A GEEK is someone who is obsessively enthusiastic especially about computers, but many would argue that TRAINSPOTTERS are at least GEEKish.
Down
1 Football team in China excellent (6)
PALACE – PAL (china, cockney rhyming slang, china plate, mate) and ACE (excellent), referring, of course, to Crystal Palace Football Club.
2 Lake and river rose catastrophically (9)
RESERVOIR – Anagram (catastrophically) of [RIVER ROSE].
3 Sincere answer Hemingway accepts? (7)
EARNEST – ERNEST (Ernest Miller Hemingway, the American writer) ‘accepting’ A{nswer}.
4 We help in their shambolic call to vote (5-4,4)
THREE-LINE WHIP – Anagram (shambolic) of [WE HELP IN THEIR]. In parliament, a THREE-LINE WHIP is a call for members to be in their places ready for a vote or division.
5 Nothing unaltered in desert haven (5)
OASIS – O (nothing) and AS IS (unaltered).
6 Diamonds set evenly in circlet (3)
ICE – Alternate / even letters in {c}I{r}C{l}E{t}.
7 Non-drinker in row causes giggle (6)
TITTER – TT (tee-total or non-drinker) inside TIER (row). ‘Oooh no, missus, TITTER ye not’ as Frankie Howerd used to say.
12 Say A380 flying near a Pole (9)
AEROPLANE – Anagram (flying) of [NEAR A POLE]. A380 is a reference to an Airbus wide-bodied AEROPLANE, not many of which are currently flying.
14 Brave man to vex six-footer (7)
GALLANT – GALL (to vex) and ANT (six-footer, an insect). A GALLANT is a dashing, debonair young man.
15 Robber also cutting dash (6)
BANDIT – AND (also) ‘cutting’ (inside) BIT (dash, as in a bit of / dash of salt).
16 Slip catch turned game (6)
TENNIS – SIN (slip) and NET (catch) all reversed (turned).
18 Foreign article contains untruth (5)
ALIEN – AN (indefinite article) with LIE (untruth) inside (containing).
21 State purpose briefly (3)
GOA – GOA{l} (purpose) briefly = drop the last letter. GOA is a state on the SW coast of India.
Brief initial thought on the on the interesting opening on satisfaction is that the subjective measures matter much more after the fact but the absence of objective things like missing opening letters can be trying during solving.
Two clues delayed me, the first being 10ac where I was convinced from the start that ‘wheels’ was cluing CAR, and I was even more convinced when the checkers C_R came into play.
The other was 12dn where before I realised that an anagram was involved, A380 had me thinking of the UK road network rather than aviation. It didn’t help that it’s a road in Devon that I happened to know quite well at one time, at least the bit south of Exeter down to Torbay.
At 16dn I thought equating SIN with a ‘slip’ was overstating things a bit.
Edited at 2021-01-07 06:46 am (UTC)
FOI: 17a AORTA
LOI: 19a ECLIPSE
Clues used with aids: 10 (1a, 9a, 10a, 13a, 20a, 23a, 1d, 15d, 16d, 21d)
Aids Used: Chambers Crossword Dictionary, Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s List, TftT
Total Answered: 20/24
As soon as I started this one, I knew I would struggle. And I did. I am starting to recognise early on in any QC whether I am going to do well or not, and this one was definitely a NOT!
I needed a lot of help with this one, and even had to come here for 4 of those answers. I also had a couple of wrong answers which totally threw me. It was many of the across clues that were mean to me. Down clues were not too bad. I did get THREE-LINE-WHIP (a term I knew not from knowledge of politics, but from my Navy days).
As for the length of time it took me before I admitted defeat: Over one hour, that’s all I’ll say.
Big fat DNF!
WRT Rotter’s intro, from a subjective point of view I think I prefer a puzzle like this over one I can speed through and get a really quick time as the satisfaction of wheedling out the answers outweighs the brief boost to my ego I get from posting a quick time.
Objectively I quite enjoy the grids where there’s no 1a, as the lack of opening letters adds more of a challenge.
Thanks to Rotter
Edited at 2021-01-07 09:58 am (UTC)
Edited at 2021-01-07 10:06 am (UTC)
This was tricky Wurm for me today. I had two major problems: I know nothing about boats; and I really struggled with 14d. My first go for 14d was ADAMANT with a question mark. That made the boat impossible. It was my last one left after 15:32. It took me over 5 minutes of deep thought to get OUTRIGGER and then I just plumped for GOADANT at 14d. So one wrong after 22:31.
Enjoyed the puzzle very much. COD to TRAINSPOTTER.
David
Got PERFECTIONIST , THREE LINE WHIP and eventually TRAINSPOTTER (COD), finishing SW and NE.
Returned exhausted to wild guess no 1 PALACE and looked up Train. Wild guess 2 ECLIPSE turned out to be right. Got OUTRIGGER but failed to see parsing at first, oh dear.
Quite relieved to meet AGAIN. Wild guess 3 GALLANT. Never thought of Ant = six footer.
Wild guess 4 TENNIS fitted the checkers.
So won through in the end, only resorting once to CCD. I understand the link between China/mate/pal but ….
Thanks to Rotter for much needed blog.
Edited at 2021-01-07 11:34 am (UTC)
I was thrown by lots here. For example, in 10 across, CORTÈGE, I was looking for a word with EE in – wheels in middle – and couldn’t think of one. I wouldn’t have got the correct answer in a month of Sundays. I don’t know why “get ” is reversed either.
I guess my biggest problem here is being totally off wavelength with the synonyms today – “core” for “middle” (10), “trigger” for “set off” (13), “pal” for “China” (1 down – sorry, but a GR from me, even though I answered it, unparsed), “sin” for “slip” (16, answered and parsed but MER )…
On the other hand, I did like OASIS, 5 down and GALLANT, 14 down.
Marvellous blog, Rotter. I’m going to have a calming cup of tea and then reread it to fully appreciate your comments. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this
Edited at 2021-01-07 12:11 pm (UTC)
Jim R
Glad to see that it was not “potters” that were the reference to being Geeks as in my experience they are nothing of the sort, but as I have never knowingly met a trainspotter, am prepared to take that as read.
A struggle and frustrating when completing the puzzle but fail to know why.
Thanks Wurms
FOI LASER, LOI TENNIS (“sin” for “slip” a bit of a MER, like Jack), COD GALLANT, a Bad Day.
Thanks Wurm and Rotter.
Templar
I thought there were a some tricky clues that needed some lateral thinking. 1dn “Palace”, 10ac “Cortège” and 14dn “Gallant” come to mind. Unfortunately, it took an age to get both 1ac “Perfectionist” and 23ac “Trainspotters” which didn’t help with my time. I’m sure we’ll also get the usual debate about whether trainspotters are geeks (and is it derogatory?).
For a while, kept thinking 4dn had something to do with the Commons division bell – so my initial guess was in the right ball park.
Only question was whether Pal = China needs something to distinguish it as Cockney rhyming slang – or is it just taken that it’s an expression for friend?
FOI – 8ac “Laser”
LOI – 15dn “Bandit”
COD – 14dn “Gallant”
Thanks as usual.
Definitely seen it for dropped “h’s” but thought I’d seen an indicator for use in rhyming slang in the past.
Real Cockney’s likes to use the word ‘trousers’ as a nonce word esp. when referring to their boss or someone ‘igh up – they don’t use ‘is name as such, but the expression -‘Ow’s ‘is trarsers’. No names….
Edited at 2021-01-07 03:00 pm (UTC)
Didn’t know CRS for ‘China’ in 1D
didn’t see CORTEGE in 10A. as didn’t understand ‘wheels’ indicator
missed the correct synonyms for 16D TENNIS
Even stuck on BANDIT. Ugh.
Tomorrow is a new crossword, so onwards!
Thank you for the explanations.
I struggled with THREE-LINE WHIP, CORTEGE and OUTRIGGER. I was partly hindered by having mistyped RESERVOIR, so I spent too long trying to think of a boat beginning with ‘V’ before spotting my mistake.
FOI: 8A LASER
LOI: 21D GOA
Thanks to therotter and Wurm
For BANDIT I parsed as BAN=cutting, and DIT=dash (Morse code thing?)
With G—-A-T at 14d, was very hard to get away from “giant” for six footer. But I liked the answer (ant).
COD: TRAINSPOTTERS. Great clue.
Though looking back, I’m not so sure why. Maybe because all of the long ones took a while, so I was lacking in crossers.
LOI was GOA, mainly because I missed it, filled in my OUTRIGGER, expecting it to be the last clue, and it wasn’t.
FOI: laser
LOI: cortège
COD: trainspotters (we liked “oasis” too)
Thanks to Rotter for the blog. Until relatively recently our key metric was simply being able to complete the puzzle. Now, we also “measure” our completion time but don’t track it. Our main source of satisfaction comes from the enjoyment of pitting our wits against those of the setters.
Edited at 2021-01-07 01:53 pm (UTC)
Today’s puzzle was a 13×13 and not a QC per se! My time was my best for a long time 6.45, as it was better suited to my style of solving.
FOI 1ac PERFECTIONIST
LOI 16dn TENNIS
COD 4dn THREE-LINE WHIP (where’s Kevin?)
WOD 25th AMENDMENT!
Edited at 2021-01-07 02:08 pm (UTC)
FOI Stale
LOI Cortege
COD Tennis
Time 17 minutes
Thanks Wurm and Rotter for the comprehensive blog and very interesting reflections
Today just 1 failure. Cortege. Scuppered by thinking car was the 1st 3 and hadn’t seen wheels as a reverse before. No complaints however and another tool for the bank.
Maybe tomorrow will get me over the line.
Graham
FOI – 8ac LASER
LOI – 1dn PALACE
COD – 23ac TRAINSPOTTERS
I would differ over the Nina measure though, in our experience these seem to spoil the puzzle rather than add to it, and I think posts here would suggest we are not the only ones to find this. Perhaps it just shows that the subjective measures are just that!
First, my compliments to the Rotter for such an interesting blog.
I felt sorry for our non-British readers today, as THREE-LINE WHIP was bad enough, without expecting them to know only half the name of CRYSTAL PALACE !
FOI LASER
LOI CORTEGE
COD THREE-LINE WHIP (but I’m English)
ANTI-COD TRAINSPOTTERS
TIME 3:43
I tend not to like puzzles I can’t finish (who does?), or with clunky ugly clues, or with wildly obscure names – but I also don’t much enjoy puzzles that are basically write-ins, or full of GK that one either knows or does not. Anything that takes me between about 8 and 20 minutes usually means a good but fair work-out. In passing I half agree with Paanliv on Ninas – if done well they can add to a puzzle, but all to often the need to complete the nina (or pangram) forces setters into some really contorted cluing, and then it is definitely a detractor.
So to the puzzle, which took me 14 minutes and can therefore be seen as “middling to on the tough side” for me. I thought 11A Stale was a weak clue – stale and boring are not the same – and 16D Tennis also caused a minor grumble at Sin = slip. My LOI was 14D Gallant which I put in correctly but totally failed to parse; my best attempt at explaining it was ALLAN (man’s name) in GT (for giant, ie 6 footer). Yes I thought it weak even at the time …
COD to 23A Trainspotters, such a simple clue when one has seen (or spotted?) it.
Rotter, one comment on the blog – a Three line whip is not just an order to attend, but an order to attend and vote according to the party’s position. In other words “You must vote, and you must vote for our side”.
Cedric
Edited at 2021-01-07 05:21 pm (UTC)
However, looking on the bright side, as nearly half of my QC attempts since I started last June have ended in DNFs, I count today as a hard-earned victory.
Mrs Random crossed the line in 28 minutes and said it was “difficult”. I don’t believe her, however, as anything under half an hour cannot have posed much of a challenge.
Many thanks to therotter (I will mull over your Satisfaction Index idea) and to Wurm.
Us trainspotters ain’t geeks but us computer nerds might be
I’m always surprised that people guess solutions they can’t parse, which sometimes helps and sometimes hinders. I can’t bring myself to write it in until I’m sure it’s right.
One day, let us hope, I shall parse first. It does sometimes happen even now.
Re Ninas, I think they can cause convoluted clues, as someone said above.
Yes, Rotter, I like grids which give first letters. My GK is probably better than my solving skills, but I enjoy learning Crosswordese.
Not keen on the Tennis clue – only knew because similar caught me before… I have A380s overhead all the time (well as stated by Rotter(I think) not many at all at the moment)….so aeroplane was in before seeing the anagram…most time on LOI Cortege- was about to give up when I just saw it.
Excellent blog thanks Rotter… I think that the different setters styles have a big sway in my ability to complete…and not being one for the 15×15 I do notice that many solvers here sail through some crosswords that I just find too tricky in places to complete – and they usually have that 15×15 experience.
I am particularly nervous of Orpheus at the moment – well actually I suppose I am nervous of them all!!
Thanks all
John George