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. | |
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.
Woody
Why does the Don have (at least) two personae here in the QC? I.e. Izetti and Pedro (if memory serves).
Anyway, great puzzle, thank you very much, Mr Manley. Lovely surfaces as usual. I DNK the other OBLATE and horse=PUNCH has been noted too. Had a bit of a MER with the the greasing of the surface with ‘in’ in 20A which is very non-Ximenian but people seem to care less about that these days. I mean *in* a state is very different to ‘a state’.
Like others I wrangled a bit with understandable = FIGURE.
COD for me was 14A for obscurity – I knew one half of it, but sadly not the other. I’ve given up timing myself by the way – I’m getting older and slower.
Woodsy.
Got Spin but not really happy with it.
Pleased to see Dachshunds early after some time trying Pas around the outside.
But much of it seemed a bit dated and along old worn lines of obscurity as others have touched on.
(In other words I’m just cross at my knowledge weaknesses!!)
Stopped after about 35 minutes.
Thanks all
John George