Another difficult QC: I was nearly four minutes over target, which was nearly four minutes quicker than yesterday’s, done just beforehand. So perhaps a bit easier today (although I am more used to Izetti’s style, so perhaps not). Certainly some tricky clues, and I had to return to different parts of the grid several times before ending up at 1 down and deciding against bunging in an unlikely-looking word. A lovely puzzle for the more experienced, and I can assure you every such person has spent plenty of time staring blankly at empty grids, so don’t be dispirited if you struggled a bit with this. Many thanks to Izetti!
Across | |
1 | Disdain continued briefly, almost completely futile (8) |
CONTEMPT – CONT. (continued “briefly”), EMPTy (“almost completely” futile) | |
5 | Distinctive quality of gold shown by artist (4) |
AURA – Au (gold) RA (artist) | |
8 | Little devil by old shelter, unable to act (8) |
IMPOTENT – IMP (little devil) O(ld) TENT (shelter) | |
9 | Divine figure with some authority (4) |
THOR – with “some” auTHORity | |
11 | Fathers outside church shy away from dogs (10) |
DACHSHUNDS – DADS (fathers) outside CH(urch) SHUN (shy away from) | |
14 | Religious person giving description of our earthy sphere (6) |
OBLATE – double definition, the first more obscure than the second. Wikipedia covers both in depth if you’re interested. | |
15 | Report of oil in this country (6) |
GREECE – sounds like (reportedly) GREASE (oil) | |
17 | A lone comic, terribly cheap (10) |
ECONOMICAL – anagram (terribly) of A LONE COMIC | |
20 | Gosh, one with nothing is in a state! (4) |
OHIO – OH (gosh) I (one) with O (nothing) | |
21 | University class? Crashing out in examination (8) |
TUTORIAL – anagram (crashing) of OUT in TRIAL (examination) | |
22 | Border straddled by distinguished gentlemen (4) |
EDGE – is straddled by distinguishED GEntlemen | |
23 | Notice obsession making one very angry (8) |
SEETHING – SEE (notice) THING (obsession). As in to have a thing for something. |
Down | |
1 | Impudent youngster, Conservative success (4) |
CHIT – C(onservative) HIT (success). I was wondering if a CWIN was a brat of Welsh extraction but no: a chit is the young of an animal, as in a whelp, cub or kitten, applied “more or less contemptuously to a child” (OED). News to me, but I like the word (not least because, if preceded by the word “little”, it bears a satisfying similarity to a rather more vulgar analysis). | |
2 | Little drinks go round after characters have turned up (4) |
NIPS – SPIN (go round) after characters have turned up = reversed. | |
3 | Separation from ethnic origin (10) |
EXTRACTION – double definition | |
4 | Vivacious horse going over yard (6) |
PUNCHY – PUNCH (horse) going over Y(ard). As in a Suffolk Punch: a punch is a thickset person or thing, from puncheon, a large barrel or cask. | |
6 | Likely to go mad, being in need of a joint? (8) |
UNHINGED – cryptic hint, as in lacking a joint/hinge. | |
7 | Criminal e-traders nabbed by the police (8) |
ARRESTED – anagram (criminal) of ETRADERS | |
10 | The soldiers facing an attack in that vicinity (10) |
THEREABOUT – THE, R.E. (soldiers) facing A BOUT (an attack) | |
12 | Repeated invitation that I cannot accept! (4,4) |
COME COME – COME (invitation) repeated. | |
13 | Permitting everyone to be given due (8) |
ALLOWING – ALL (everyone) to be given OWING (due) | |
16 | Diagram to be understandable (6) |
FIGURE – double definition. The second as in to imagine or picture in the mind: the OED has the phrase “to figure to oneself”, where “be understandable” swaps well enough. | |
18 | Little friend of Mickey being heard (4) |
MINI – MINNIE [Mouse] (friend of Mickey) “being heard” | |
19 | Something eating the lettuce? Blow! (4) |
SLUG – double definition. |
Time: 11:52, about the same as yesterday.
FOI 5ac AURA
LOI 14ac OBLATE
COD 23ac SEETHING – I was reminded of SEETHING LANE EC3 and Sir Edward Denny Bacon
WOD 11ac DACHSHUND – it is little known that the ‘sausage dog’ was bred for badger baiting – which was a popular lunchtime sport for all the family in the first half of the 19thC., in the Midlands. Dachshund means badger-dog from the German.
Edited at 2021-01-28 03:38 am (UTC)
Didn’t think THING was fair for obsession, but that’s just me. LOI Figure. Cod DACHSHUND. Such funny looking dogs. Mine is a Bedlington terrier also “funny looking” as lambs go. Historically used for rat catching although mine has never caught anything and scared of cats and more. Doesn’t bark, doesn’t bite, doesn’t shed, doesn’t fetch, doesn’t chew stuff, doesn’t do much of anything at all. Ideal. Thanks Izetti. Tough but almost deciphered.
Collins and Chambers also mentions ‘vigorous’. So now we have to consider whether ‘vigorous = vivacious’, but I think they are close enough.
More generally, yes I found this hard, perhaps the hardest QC I can remember for a while, and I’m only sorry that The Times has chosen this day to publish it. We could have done with an easy one to calm the troops but this is rather a case of petrol on the flames. 17 minutes.
Edited at 2021-01-28 06:03 am (UTC)
Incidentally, in addition to what Jack mentioned about the extent to which vivacious could mean vigorous, the OED does have a sense of “tenacious of life, long-lived, lively, vigorous”, related to its original meaning.
–AntsInPants
Yesterday’s setter came by here late yesterday to confirm 21a was missing a word and to say it is now corrected in the online versions — now “Rest of her answer oddly skipped”.
Edited at 2021-01-28 06:44 am (UTC)
Setter is forgiven by including the problem with the skipped word in the surface of the correction.
Edited at 2021-01-28 09:37 am (UTC)
Nor would I see “punchy” as meaning vivacious. “forceful, effective; vigorous,” perhaps (OED) but not lively or animated
DNK the archaic meanings of ‘chit’ and ‘oblate’ but convinced myself from the clues that they must be correct. I’m learning to trust my intuition a bit more.
WB
Finished in 20.26 with LOI FIGURE.
Thanks to Roly
But I was defeated by the top left hand corner. And NHO OBLATE.
I was stumped by 11a for a bit as I thought it was “hound “ and couldn’t work out why it didn’t fit.
Thank you, Izetti and Roly
Diana
Re obscurities, I was very amused by roly saying of OBLATE “double definition, the first more obscure than the second”, when I knew the first very well but had no idea about the second at all! One man’s GK is another man’s obscurity, I guess.
I too dallied with the Welsh CWIN (but “chit of a girl” then swam up from the memory) and tried hard to make IOWA work (there’s a “one”, and a “nothing”, and an “a” … surely I can jam these together …).
FOI CONTEMPT, LOI THEREABOUT, COD UNHINGED (terrific surface), time 13:28 for a Decent Enough Day.
Many thanks roly (wonderful trivia about DACHSHUNDS! – I shall look upon them with new respect) and Izetti.
Templar
Edited at 2021-01-28 10:09 am (UTC)
Also Failed with PUNCHY, UNHINGED, EXTRACTION and DACHSHUND. I kept trying to get PACESETTER to work (PAS around CE, SETTER=dog). When I have a near-miss its hard to throw it all away, as I should have done, and considered DADS, along with PAS and FRs. And CH as well as CE.
NHO CHIT
COD “COME COME”
I didn’t want to spend all morning on the puzzle as yesterday, but I did enjoy it.
Guessed OBLATE, liked DACHSHUNDS, SEETHING, COME COME.
FOsI CONTEMPT, CHIT, ARRESTED, no problem with PUNCHY (eventually).
Thanks, Roly, as ever.
Edited at 2021-01-28 01:47 pm (UTC)
FOI: 19d SLUG
LOI: 1d CHIT
Time to Complete: DNF
Clues Answered without aids: 14 (incl. 1 wrong answer)
Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 3 (8a, 11a, 14a)
Clues Unanswered: 7 (1a, 21a, 23a, 4d, 10d, 16d, 18d)
Aids Used: Chambers, Bradfords
Total Answered: 17/24 (including 1 wrong answer)
I didn’t think I was going to get as far as I did on this. As I normally do, I first read through all the clues to see if any jump out at me. I got to the very last clue (19d) before that happened.
As I slowly progressed there were times when I thought “let’s call it a day”. But I persevered, and glad I did as I was able to answer a few more.
In the end I did better than first hoped, answering 17 clues including 3 with the help of aids, and one wrong answer.
3d was my one wrong answer. I put DETRACTION as being a synonym of separation, though I just could not see how ethnic origin fitted into it. Now that I know the right answer, I can see where it fit in.
1d CHIT – I entered this even though I was unsure. I assumed Conservative was “C”, and success was “hit”. I had not heard of a boy being known as a “chit”, but I went with my conviction and kept it. Now I know, thanks to the blogger, that chit is the youngster of an animal, and not a boy.
12d – COME COME. Another one that I was unsure of. I guessed that the answer would be in the form of one word repeated, and “come” is an invitation. The only way I could think of “come come” meaning “I cannot accept”, was if somebody said something like “Oh, come come now, I can’t do that!” Several times in the past I have ignored my convictions and not entered a word, resulting in frustration when I found out later that it was the right answer, and I should have put it. So this time I entered my answer, and I was right!
An enjoyable crossword. Not too tough, but not a breeze either.
DNF, but better than yesterday.
PS> I am aware that my posts can be a bit long, I hope this does not annoy anybody.
Edited at 2021-01-28 10:23 am (UTC)
CHIT = “impudent”
PUNCHY = “vivacious”
OBLATE = “anything” 🙂
Might have got PUNCHY from the Suffolk Punch if I hadn’t been mentally stuck on PONY and various others, but no chance on CHIT (CWIN?) or OBLATE.
Thanks Roly for the explanations. Thanks too to Izetti for what I thought was otherwise an enjoyably tough but fair QC, but maybe leave the really obscure stuff for the 15×15 in future?
Edited at 2021-01-28 10:28 am (UTC)
It was much too hard today and I accept all of the difficulties I faced as being down to my own inabilities — with the GR exception of 14 across, a double definition in which both definitions are, IMO, completely obscure to the average punter and in which there was no alternative wordplay to help. It’s left me utterly 23 across.
Thanks to the blogger.
I agree with the general view that we seem to have hit a chewy batch of QCs of late. I am enjoying them now, but six months ago I would have been getting quite frustrated, I think. More “13x13s” than QCs, which helps me trying to “move up” to the 15×15 but I sympathise with other views.
Edited at 2021-01-28 11:33 am (UTC)
The NW corner was completely bare until towards the end and it was only after getting 1ac that things fell into place, although I can hardly say “Chit” and “Punchy” were obvious. Toyed with “Packhounds” for 11ac until it wouldn’t parse and also struggled with 21ac “Tutorial” and 10dn “Thereabout”.
I think many of the words today expressed my range of emotions throughout: Contempt, Unhinged, Impotent (in the mental sense), Come! Come! and Seething.
FOI — 5ac “Aura”
LOI — 16dn “Figure”
COD — 6dn “Unhinged”
Thanks as usual.
That this is a totally different reaction from the one I had yesterday says I think more about me than the two QCs concerned. The more I do these QCs (I started about 18 months ago) the more it seems that things like GK, comfort with anagrams, even wavelength are a personal matter. I have my blind spots (1940s films being one…) but who doesn’t, and while any puzzle can be seen at the same time by different people as “easy” and “difficult”, yesterday’s discussion strayed into views that it was both “fair” and “unfair”, which is a different matter and must make the setters’ task of pitching puzzles appropriately even more challenging. (And in passing makes the achievements of our Saturday Duo, John and Phil, even more impressive — they always hit the spot!)
However, to today: a great puzzle, not by any means easy but some nice clues, with the longest hold-up for me being over 3D Extraction — I originally mis-read the clue and thought “from ethnic origin” was Ex- and then something, and spent some time looking for an 8-letter word meaning ethnic origin to follow the Ex. Got there in the end but needed all the checkers. For me the words underlying both 4D Punchy and 14A Oblate were “known and so gettable” — indeed in the case of the latter, I knew both meanings. Which rather underlines the point above about knowledge being a personal thing.
Have read the discussion on Jack’s comment on difficult QCs with great interest but felt a touch nervous about commenting there lest a certain member of our community blasts me for length and clogging up the blog …
Many thanks to Roly for another very helpful blog
Cedric
Jim R
Jim
FOI – 8ac IMPOTENT
LOI – 4dn PUNCHY
COD – 6dn UNHINGED
I thought I was on for another DNF when staring at a distinctly bare grid after 5 mins. Then realised that fathers could be “dads” as well as “pas” and deleted the P I had put in for the first letter of dogs and replaced with a D. DACHSHUNDS jumped in quickly, and it all fell into place thereafter.
CHIT went in last, after CONTEMPT. Had only heard of the religious OBLATE. Liked COME COME and the surface of UNHINGED.
Lovely crossword, if on the hard side, though much easier for me than yesterday, which was DNF after 17 mins.
8:33.
For me easier than yesterday’s nightmare and a lot more enjoyable (nina aside).
Graham
And of course if you are going to refer to th Earth as oblate, you can’t in the same sentence call it a sphere.
I didn’t get it despite knowing both definitions, though.
Katy
Not the first time a pair of supposedly synonymous words has held me up in a cryptic, and unlikely to be the last!
WB
WB
So, with 40 minutes on the clock I was just faced with 14a: O_L_T_ and a long alphabet trawl ensued. OBLATE appeared very quickly and I knew it was a word, but I didn’t know either meaning. Plenty of other interesting possibilities presented themselves over the following 20 minutes or so, but I eventually went with OBLATE and was pleased to find it was the correct answer.
Final result: Fully solved in 61 minutes.
Many thanks to Izetti for the challenging puzzle, to rolytoly for the solutions and explanations, and to all who have posted above for helping me realise that I am not alone in thinking this was really quite difficult for a QC.
The NW corner gave me me the most difficulty.
FOI AURA
LOI PUNCHY (MER)
COD UNHINGED
TIME 6:50
FOI: aura
LOI: extraction (but really a DNF)
COD: unhinged (made us laugh)
Thanks to Rolytoly for the blog.
Big delays caused by Alienation at 3d and IMPAIRED at 8a. A Punch was not the first horse I thought of. At least I can now spell DACHSHUNDS which I tried and rejected at first as it did not fit (was rushing at the time).
Tough stuff; on the clock 38:59.
David
Despite taking about the same amount of time as yesterday, I found the journey today much more pleasant – Izetti does challenge us, but whereas I used to panic when I saw his name, I now think: ‘Well, I’m in for a slow ride today, but it will be fun’. Today was no exception.
I agree with Cedric’s points on pretty much everything, inc how to parse 3d – I went down exactly the same route. I don’t mind old films (as long as I don’t get the names half wrong) but am fed up with terminology like ‘it’, SA, and bra for support(er).
FOI Aura
LOI Oblate – I didn’t think I knew the word but when nothing much else fitted, something rang a bell!
COD Arrested
Time 19 minutes
Thanks Izetti for the challenge (and also for your comments in the extra blog) and to Roly for the thoughtful blog.
I sincerely hope newcomers don’t get too put off by the puzzles over the last couple of weeks – although a lot of people are feeling frustrated at the moment, I have felt, over the years, that these things go in cycles. There were certainly times in the past when I had days on end without finishing, and then there would be a run of very friendly puzzles. Let’s hope something similar is round the corner.
Today I really hoped I would be able to do better and so it proved. I went through it steadily (I knew punch and oblate) but got stuck on 16d and 23a. I resorted to aids and decided 16d had to be visual or figure though I couldn’t see why either was understandable. Only figure gave a sensible answer for 23a and I finished in half an hour- satisfactory.
FOI 2d but I put SIPS and had to change it.
LOI SEETHING
COD Would have gone for 6d or 7d but it had to be DACHSHUNDS
Thank you Izetti for restoring my confidence and Roly for your explanations.
Blue Stocking
Despite this I thought it was a very enjoyable puzzle, unlike yesterday’s !
Haven’t heard of OBLATE nor CHIT. Something new.
I have been wondering whether I would prefer to have one level of difficulty all week or these daily ups and downs, and the only downside to the tough days like today is that I don’t have the time to work through them in one go. Also, the comments here are very helpful.
LOI 4D: PUNCHY
I tried this just after midnight so maybe I was tired.
I had never heard of CHIT so I crossed my fingers based on wordplay alone.
Thank you, rolytoly and Izetti.
Pleased to complete this one but it took me 39 minutes, so pretty tough for a QC. Got stuck on SLUG, assuming the lettuce would be COS. Guessed PUNCHY without knowing about the type of horse. I remembered the earth being an OBLATE spheroid from school 40 years ago – good to see all those years of schooling finally coming in useful!
Two courses and a bit.
Finally.. all puzzles a vary in difficulty according to both setter and solver
Stop moaning about it and learn from the mistakes.