Times Quick Cryptic No 1819 by Mara

87 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 1819 by Mara”

1. I found this quite difficult, but a fitting end to a week where I had not a one sub-10 minute time.

   After a first pass through all the clues, I seriously began to wonder if I would be able to finish. The grid seems highly partitioned, so my successes in one region of the grid were of no help to the rest.

   No idea how I managed to get CRYSTAL PALACE, as I’ve never heard of them. Same for ASTON/ASTOR? VILLA the other day. I suspect I may have heard of these while watching Ted Lasso.

   1. It’s ASTON VILLA, btw. Have you heard of PORT VALE?
      1. That one I can safely say I truly have never heard of! Ask me about snooker players, and I’ll know them.
         1. Snooker players ? Potters ? The nickname of Port Vale’s neighbours Stoke City !
2. …and pagoda and panorama are chestnuts, but it really gets tricky after that. I found honestly and delusion particularly tricky, and I really wanted to put illusion. My time of 14:40 doesn’t even put me at the back of the experienced-solver pack, so this was a little tough.
3. Maybe I was having a bad day, but I needed 25 minutes to complete this one, not including the I time gave up on it, went and did something else and then returned to it.

   I had odd answers scattered in every quarter of the grid and it was ages before I managed to get any sort of joined-up solving under way.

   As John says in his intro the grid didn’t help and I wonder what happened to the assurance we were given by one of the editors, surely more than a year ago by now, that this style of grid was to be phased out for QC’s. It doesn’t bother me unduly one way or the other but we were told it.

   The definition at 10ac is worthy of a prize 15×15 puzzle but a little advanced for a QC I’d have thought.

   Edited at 2021-02-26 05:04 am (UTC)

   1. Your experience – at least in terms of time taken (approximately, I don’t use the timer), disconnectedly filling the grid, and needing a break – sounds similar to mine… and I thought it was wonderful! I much prefer a puzzle like this, with several lightbulb moments, than a set of easy write-ins to please the speed merchants.

      As for the grid: yes, with ~52% of the clues starting unchecked it wasn’t terribly easy to get going. However, I struggled most with the SE quadrant, which doesn’t contain any of those clues, so maybe that isn’t so important. Perhaps the editor who promised to phase out these grids was persuaded – by I dunno… some of the setters maybe – to do no such thing. It strikes me that creating ‘Quick’ crosswords without them becoming staid is tough enough without adding extra constraints. Still, it would be nice if they would say something to us about the change of heart, if indeed that is what has happened.

      –AntsInPants

4. A hard one, but fair. DNF after 30 with 22A, CUCKOO unsolved (went with Cocoon). Also very slow with NAIL, was stuck on words starting with O, and AWL in there also provided some dead ends.

   HONESTLY, LAVENDER and MISSPELT all very good

5. ‘Honey’ as a synonym for ‘love’ is something I’ve only previously encountered among people of my grandparents’ era, and NHO TANNER (the coin) so a DNF for me.

   Otherwise was pleased with how I went, I find I am enjoying these puzzles more and more. It’s nice to read this blog and think ‘of course that was the answer’ rather than ‘I would never have got that’, which is how I felt the first few months.

   I will persevere!

   WB

   1. Bobby Goldsboro’s song “Honey” ?
   2. My wife and I use those terms. We do not use ‘babe’ or ‘baby’.
6. ….but completed in 37 minutes. My slowest for some time, but I did enjoy rolling those clues around my mouth and properly savouring them.
   4d TANNER made me chuckle, and I masticated thoroughly its neighbour 5d CRYSTAL PALACE – a clever double definition. LOI was 13a AIDE which took an age as I quickly got the idea of IDEA but didn’t spot the anagrind till very late. Duh!
   Two mugs of coffee and a big bowl of porridge, as well as a long list of instructions from the wife while she was going to be out, got me through. But the sun is shining and all seems well with my world.
   Thanks Mara and John.
   Enjoy your weekends everybody. I tackle the very doable Daily Telegraph cryptic on a Saturday, in the absence of the Times quickie, so will see you all on Monday.

   Edited at 2021-02-26 08:15 am (UTC)

   1. You could always try Phil’s Weekend QC, which is an attempt to fill the gap, and the 19th in the series.

      Edited at 2021-02-26 09:03 am (UTC)

   2. I’m a big fan of the Jumbo Cryptic in the Times for a Saturday challenge. Seems very do-able, compared with the 15×15, maybe its because I’m more relaxed on Saturday, or the super long clues. I mean who doesn’t like a puzzle that can have 25-letter clues.
      1. I’m going to try the Jumbo cryptic this weekend. I have tried the Daily Telegraph, Times and Grauniad Cryptic, but find them too hard at the moment. Perhaps the Jumbo Cryptic may be something I can tackle.
         1. Good luck with the Jumbo tomorrow. I blog every 5th, but it’s not my turn again for a few weeks. There are generally quite a few QC level clues which can help to get started, but I nearly always find at least 2 or 3 unknowns.
         2. The Telegraph is much easier that the Times or Guardian in my limited experience. About one week in four I don’t finish but it helps the weekend pass during these lockdown times.
         3. The Guardian (and Independent and FT) puzzles always give the setter’s name, which means it’s easier to pick which ones might be worth trying. For example, Vulcan in the Guardian is at the easier end of the spectrum, whereas Enigmatist is the hardest of the hard. In the Independent, Tees (at least when he’s setting on a Sunday) is worth a shot, whereas Nimrod (another of Enigmatist’s pseudonyms) is very hard. In the FT, I’ve found Orense’s puzzles to be quite accessible, whereas Io (yet another of Enigmatist’s pseudonyms) is tough. I think there is a pattern to the order of the setters of the Telegraph’s puzzles, but you could also look on the site that blogs those puzzles (bigdave44 dot com) and see how the blogger has rated the difficulty.
            1. Oh. By the way. Mohn neglected to mention… If you fancy trying the Guardian, Independent and/or FT crosswords (which are all free to access online), you can find links them and blogs explaining the solutions on the excellent Fifteen Squared site. “Never knowingly undersolved”, as they say. To add to the recommendations, I always enjoy the crosswords on alternate Wednesdays in the Independent from Eccles, which are of medium difficulty.
               1. Thanks for adding that info about Fifteen Squared, John. Count me as another Eccles fan.

7. BIFD more than parsed today and got lucky just squeezing in u der 20 min. I’ve come here to make sense of the cryptic. Found clues challenging eg AIDE not exactly reversal of IDEA. Will mull over solutions and hope that leads to a better appreciation 🙏 Thanks as always.

   1. See John’s explanation of IDEA > AIDE. ‘back’ = ‘last letter’.
8. No problems with CRYSTAL PALACE so should have been on for decent time especially with all but three done in 6 minutes but TANNER and DASHED wouldn’t come easily, and then 3+ minutes looking at H_N_STL_ without seeing the answer. Honestly don’t know how I couldn’t see it.

   Liked the clue and the PDM understanding the definition but a smidgeon above the Quickie paygrade perhaps as Jackkt suggests?

   No complaints from me. Always happy to finish. Thanks all

9. Downs were harder than acrosses for me today and bottom more accessible that the top. I got 8 acrosses on the first pass so a very. I don’t usually count the first pass of downs but since I only got three I couldn’t avoid it. Got CRYSTAL PALACE as I incorrectly saw it as an anagram of ‘clear location’ straight away. Once I realised there was no y — and no p and more — I looked again at the clue. Good slice of luck but then a real slog to the end. All fair and good learning but hard work. Particular struggles with PANORAMA — spent too long not separating the country house and wondering how ‘manor’ fitted, not getting ‘nil’ for ‘nothing’ and being slow to ‘figure’ for ‘amount of money’ even with all the checkers and DOUBLE already entered.
   1. This is where experienced solvers have the edge – how many times in the past 15 years have we seen panorama clued using Panama? If you’ve been around for a while, you know that dray is yard backwards, decaf is faced backwards, and carthorse is an anagram of orchestra.
10. A tough end to the week with the NE being particularly slow to yield. I tried making an anagram out of clear location for the team at 5d, until I spotted the PALACE part of it. DASHED, HONESTLY and the unknown TANNER had me scratching my head for at least 5 minutes at the end and I only got the last of those after an alphabet trawl. An enjoyable challenge from Mara, finished in 20.15 with my CoD going to PANORAMA for the PDM.
    Thanks to John
11. This one worked for me. A good solve usually puts me in the 30-35 min bracket, so quite pleased with a 20:45 finish. Even more so as early posters are finding it harder than usual.
12. … though initially rather disappointed with my 18 minute time, one of my slowest ever for a puzzle by Mara. But reading comments above I see I was not alone in finding this one pretty tough.

    In the end all parsed, but quite a few clues were Biff-then-parse not Parse-then-solve. 13A Aide took some realising what was going on: I initially wondered if there was a word Aedi (ie idea backwards), and then very briefly if there was a setter error (unlikely but they have happened), before I eventually worked out that the clue meant “take the last letter and put it at the front”. And a definite MER at 2D Double figures, where Amount of money = figure seems to me vague and weak at best. But the rest of the puzzle had some lovely clues: 1D Panorama and 7A Pagoda may be old chestnuts for some, but both new to me and both gave much pleasure when I got them. COD for me was 23A Vowels — so simple when I finally saw it.

    Many thanks John for the blog, though one small point: the tanner, the much loved sixpence, in fact staggered on till 1980. I remember it well as for some years in the early 1960s it was my pocket-money! Decimalisation was 1971, and the smaller coins (old penny and threepenny bit) were phased out pretty quickly, but the 6d was both popular and an exact amount in new pence (2 1/2 p as you say), and the general public wanted to keep it. Banks hated it though as they had set their systems up to ignore the new halfpenny, and eventually the banks won — don’t they always.

    And now onto Phil’s Saturday Special. A good weekend to all
    Cedric

    Edited at 2021-02-26 09:09 am (UTC)

    1. I think Biff-then-parse is a perfectly valid way to solve, and is surely what I do much of the time, especially with a checker or two. In a Times crossword you can always target the word at the start and end for a synonym and see if it fits. That accounts for PANORAMA, TANNER, DOUBLE FIGURES, LAST and ELI for me today.
    2. Yes. You are quite right. By “phased out” I meant they were no longer minted. Blog updated. Thanks.
13. A very enjoyable solve today, and all parsed. FOI Pagoda, LOI cuckoo contributed by disinterested husband before I had the chance to see what effect spruce, which had just gone in, had on –c-o-. He says I would have got it, but we will never know now, will we? All done in about 15 minutes so in my book that makes a good puzzle, not too easy so the brain gets a workout, not too hard so it is still a quick cryptic. I enjoyed all the clues. Since it’s all done I guess I might have time for the 15 x 15 again today. Gulp. Thanks, John and Mara. GW.
14. I parsed 22a CUCKOO as an overall cryptic definition. For me ‘its’ makes it all about the bird rather than the euphemism for madness, and the cuckoo is notorious for being raised in the nests of other birds, presumably in other trees.
    1. Sorry, I forgot to sign that comment.

       –AntsInPants

       1. Yes. I suppose you could treat it as a cryptic definition. I wonder what the setter intended? I’ll update the blog. Thanks.

          Edited at 2021-02-26 10:02 am (UTC)

          1. I certainly read it as a pure cryptic.
15. I was off to a good start in the NW and kept going until after 7 minutes I had all but 4 clues solved. Those 4 were MISSPELT, SPRUCE, HONESTLY and TANNER, and in that order took me over my target to 10:46. Thanks Mara and John.
16. So sad to report another DNF but we just couldn’t solve 4D (although it was obvious when we saw the solution) which slowed down our NE corner efforts considerably. That said, we really enjoyed Mara’s puzzle – thank you.

    Looking forward to the Saturday QC and to a more successful week of QCs.

    FOI: pagoda
    LOI: nail
    COD: Crystal Palace

    Thanks for the blog John.

17. Lots to enjoy here but I think a few will have been frustrated by quite a few. I would say overall a bit too obscure for a quickie. One of my pet moans is that you would indeed have to know the slang for predecimal uk coins – hard lines if you are younger than maybe 60! Also forgive my pedantry but 2d needs to be less than 100 too!Thanks all though.

18. FOI: 7a PAGODA
    LOI: 11a LAVENDER

    Time to Complete: DNF

    Clues Answered Correctly without aids: 17

    Clues Answered with Aids (3 lives): 4d

    Clues Unanswered: 5 (10a, 13a, 16a, 3d, 5d)

    Wrong Answers: Nil

    Total Correctly Answered (incl. aids): 18/23

    Aids Used: Chambers

    Even though this was yet another DNF, which I found to be quite tough, I enjoyed it so much more than yesterdays. With Teazel’s QC yesterday I just found myself becoming quite frustrated with the nonsensical (to me) clues that they gave us. With Mara, even though there were tough clues, they were of the sort that I “almost” got, that were on the tip of my pen, so to speak. Crosswords like that, which I do not finish, I do not find so disappointing.

    4d. TANNER – I am only familiar with this word from watching Tony Hancock’s “The Emigrant”, in which Tony decides to move out of the country as the housing rates had just been put up to a “tanner” (which I know to be six pence, again from this show).

    13a. AIDE – I did not answer this one. The only suitable word for notion I could think of was “IDEA”. With the clue saying “back to front” I took it as mean reverse the word. But that gave me “ADEI”, which made no sense to me. Once I saw the answer here, I realised I have seen the “back to front” before, referring to moving the last letter to the start of the word. I need to be more aware of this type of clue.

    So, all DNF for me this week. I am off to console myself with chocolate.

19. I’m with jackkt On this one. A similar experience and a very similar time. As often happens, I started well despite the unfriendly grid and thought I might end the week on a relative high. However, MISSPELT, NAIL, and LOI HONESTLY (!!) put paid to that and I sat and stared at these. I finally biffed the last one, given the crossers.
    I liked VOWELS but I think LAVENDER must be my COD.
    It is not the first time that Mara has put me in my place. Thanks, anyway, and thanks to John for a much-needed blog. John M.
20. Not many really obvious ones if you don’t know the “chestnuts” already, so a solid workout for my dozy brain. Lots to like , once solved! HONESTLY took a long time to fall, so frustrating when you can see the ST and L must be somewhere but unable to find the H…. that equates with love. Penny-drop moment with AIDE when I had rejected it as an anagram for lack of any apparent indicator, but then saw the obvious instruction. We don’t to get many letter shift clues in the QC but a couple recently so I must remember to look out. MISSPELT was also tricky. Liked SALT for its clever simplicity. Many thanks setter and blogger.
21. 22 minutes for me, so definitely at the tough end of the Rotterometer scale, but very satisfying, teasing the answers from the clues. The first three acrosses went straight in, followed by the first two downs, but then it all got clunky and disjointed. At one point I noted that the LH side was all but complete, but the RH side was a bit of a desert. LAST and AIDE opened it up some, and I crawled to completion with SPRUCE LOI. Excellent fair though, thanks Mara and John.
22. 14:09 with my last four in SPRUCE/CUCKOO and HONESTLY/TANNER. There was some very tricky stuff here in an unhelpful grid but at least there were no obscure words. Thanks Mara, that was quite a workout.
23. SPRUCE/CUCKOO and HONESTLY/DASHED last four in. RHS seemed trickier. Nice to see my team CRYSTAL PALACE rather than the usual suspects.
24. One of the answers in this puzzle is misspelt 🙂

    Edited at 2021-02-26 10:49 am (UTC)

25. A run of good times comes to a shuddering halt and I get a complementary ticket to the SCC. Tough grid and some cunning clues.

    I really enjoyed it though – much of it was pretty straightforward but cracking the 5 or so tough nuts after that was a real work out. RHS was where the demons lurked, as others have observed. Wasted lots of time thinking that CRYSTAL PALACE was going to be an anagram of “clear location”, since the checkers I had were C, A, L and C … it wasn’t until the S of HONESTLY emerged that I realised the error of my ways. I was also sure that the “Sun” in 4dn was going to be a newspaper reference.

    FOI PAGODA, LOI MISSPELT, COD CUCKOO, time 20:32.

    Many thanks Mara and John.

    Templar

    Edited at 2021-02-26 11:42 am (UTC)

    1. In the printed version ‘Sun’ is italicised, which amounts to wilful misdirection in my book.
       1. There’s no rule against wilful misdirection, it’s the setter’s job!
          1. And there may well have been a time when the Sun (the newspaper) did cost 6d!
          2. Agreed, and fair game in the 15×15, but seemed a tad sneaky for the QC. Of course, my judgement might be clouded by 4d being my poi.
26. Very hard today, not helped by the difficult grid. Needed a couple of checkers to get through it. Rather frustrating.
27. This seemed difficult to me -and I can see from comments I am not alone. After 20 minutes I had to go out. I had two left- 4d and 10a.
    It took me 5 more minutes to get HONESTLY using the first letter and alphabet trawling. Then I immediately got TANNER.
    An excellent challenge at any level.
    David
28. Glad I’m not the only one! Classic fare from Mara with lots of very short clues — a style which have been my undoing in the past and the complete opposite to Pedro, as discussed very recently. I often struggle with DDs, and today was no different, with SPRUCE completely eluding me — and not for the first time either 😕 Shame really, as I’ve had a pretty good week, both here and on the other side. I threw in the towel with three to go in today’s biggie too!

    This was good fun, though, with lots of PDMs and hard to pick a COD, so thanks Mara, and John too, for the usual friendly blog.

    FOI Pagoda
    COD Honestly — just because it took some time
    DNF

29. A tough end to a pretty tough week in my opinion. I enjoyed this offering from Mara, but I went way over my 30 mins limit and had to do it in two sittings. In the end, I crawled in (again) around 55 mins in total.

    Main hold ups were 2dn “Double Figures”, 10ac “Honestly” and the oft mentioned 4dn “Tanner” which came to me a in a flash of inspiration. But, whilst it sounded like a coin, I had no idea it was a sixpence — definitely one for the older generation I think.

    Here’s for a fresh start next week!

    FOI — 7ac “Pagoda”
    LOI — 2dn “Double Figures”
    COD — 22ac “Cuckoo” — but could have been a few today.

    Thanks as usual.

30. This has been a very tough week for me. Beaten all ends up on both Monday and Tuesday, followed by a hard solve on Wednesday and a galling not-so-general knowledge failure yesterday, I was hoping for an easier ride today – especially when I saw it was Mara and only 23 clues.

    However, my hopes were DASHED when I saw the right hand side of the grid. CRYSTAL PALACE just had to be an anagram, but wasn’t. I struggled with TANNER, but really liked it when I got it, and my LOI was NAIL (I’m always slow to see NIL for zero or nothing). So, it was a relief to finish this challenging, but enjoyable puzzle in 45 minutes, although I’m hoping for a smoother ride next week.

    Many thanks to johninterred and to Mara.

    P.S. Do abbreviations have to have some basis in reality (e.g. B for ‘bowled’ on a cricket scorecard, or M for ‘married’ in a family tree)? If so, can someone explain the basis for ‘always’ being abbreviated to AY (ref. 4d in yesterday’s QC by Teazel). Many thanks!

    1. Is just an archaic/poetic word meaning “always”.

       E’er archaic/poetic contraction of “ever”.

       Ere archaic/poetic word for “before”.

       I’d normally not expect to see them in a QC though.

    2. On abbreviations, I think that they do have to have to be used outside Crosswordland, like the examples you give. Having said that, the other day we had H for “horse” which I’ve never encountered and can’t imagine where I would!

       On “ay”, it’s not an abbreviation, it’s just what the word means (or used to mean!). This from Collins: “Definition of ’ay’ in British English (eɪ). ADVERB archaic, poetic – ever; always. Word origin C12 ai, from Old Norse ei; related to Old English ā always, Latin aevum an age, Greek aiōn.”

       1. … and H for ‘horse’ appeared in the same clue as AY for ‘always’. Thankyou for your comprehensive explanation.
          1. Sorry. My reply crossed with Templar’s and Hopkinb’s.

             Edited at 2021-02-26 01:31 pm (UTC)

       2. Thinking back 40 years, there are descriptive abbreviations on racecards , h for horse (male over 5) m for mare, c for colt, f for filly. Too long to go into all the details about male racehorses.
          1. And ironically, in the comic phonetic alphabet originating with WW1 signallers, the first letter is Ay for Orses …(followed by Beef or Mutton, C Forth Highlanders etc etc)
             1. I always heard it as C for yourself. But having been to Loch Seaforth, I rather prefer your version!
          2. Interesting. I thought the H was a reference to Heroin (aka Horse, but it’s a big field 😉)
       3. The answer is that it is a racetrack abbreviation. On a betting card, you will see H for horse and M for mare. SP is another one from the turf, it means starting price and can be indicated by odds, which might also mean take the odd letters!
    3. Ay is a word in its own right, not an abbreviation, albeit somewhat archaic/poetic as this dictionary entry says.
       As for abbreviations… The Times crossword compilers are restricted in what they are allowed to use (except for the Mephisto, where anything that’s in Chambers Dictionary is fair game). I don’t know if that list is published anywhere. Does anyone know?

       Edited at 2021-02-26 01:29 pm (UTC)

       1. John, I’ve heard of rumours of this list for as long as I’ve been contributing here and have asked many a time for sight of it, but without success. The one thing I am sure of however is that it’s reputed to be a list of single-letter abbreviations, and I’ve never been under the impression that there’s a directive on abbreviations consisting of two letters or more
31. I admit I could have solved PANORAMA when I couldn’t think of a country to fit the checkers, so a bit dim there. Failed on MISSPELT, HONESTLY, NAIL.
    Most of the RHS was a struggle though did manage CRYSTAL PALACE when penny dropped.
    Liked VOWELS, CUCKOO, FLOUNDER, MEDUSA.
    Used CCD for TANNER ( cd have remembered Cockney sixpence. Half a shilling. 20s in a £).
    A bit of a disaster all round, come to think of it.
    But thank you, John.
    Hope the w/e QC will cheer me up. No, am quite happy really after a dog walk on this glorious day, despite dismal crossword failure.

    Edited at 2021-02-26 01:43 pm (UTC)

32. It had some super clues. LAVENDER, WOLVES, FLOUNDER, TANNER (once I “got” the parsing – post solve). The “misdirection” definition of PELT for “shower”, and the indirect definition of MISSPELT, and the surface of that clue. CRYSTAL PALACE was also neat.

    Concise, precise clues. So much to like.

    It was not easy though, and I was very pleased with my time of 7:47.

33. I’m curious. Which did you think were obscure, unfair or dodgy and why?
34. “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” ?
35. That was quite a work out. 35mins seemed on the slow side, but doesn’t seem too bad now I see that Jackkt took 25. Same problems as others, with Dashed, Tanner, Loi Honestly and Misspelt responsible for nearly half my time between them. CoD to 21ac, Vowels for the surface. Invariant
36. ….as I also was over the 6 minute mark, had trouble at 4D, but finished at 10A rather than 8A. Those last two were solely responsible for me missing my target.

    I didn’t like the grid (it would be perfect for a NINA though !) but I must disagree with algol60. I thought all the clues were perfectly fair, although the overseas contingent can be forgiven for not knowing TANNER or CRYSTAL PALACE.

    FOI PAGODA
    LOI HONESTLY
    COD FLOUNDER
    TIME 6:23

    1. Thank you so much for the weekend QC. I was beginning to think that I was totally incompetent after this week’s disasters. I happily finished yours in what I believe is a PB 9:35. It’s hard to choose my COD as I loved so many of the clues, but 14d gets it, I think, as it made me laugh!! MM

       1. Thank you MM. And congratulations on your PB !

37. This seemed to take longer than it did for me. I was putting answers in steadily and looking back, nothing really held me up, but I did have to think a little as well, so I was somewhat surprised to stop my watch on 17:18 for roundabout my 10th fastest ever solve. That surprise was nothing compared to the surprise I got upon coming on here and reading how many of the regulars I had beaten. Guess I was just on Mara’s wavelength today, but I can’t help feeling very chuffed. FOI PAGODA, LOI NAIL, COD 10a. Thanks Mara and John
38. I didn’t have much time today, and with my struggles with this QC DNF.

    FOi was 7A and then had to search for another clue to answer. Having read the explanations here I think it was just a tricky puzzle.

    Have not heard of TANNER , and didn’t think of honey as ‘love’ in 10A

    16A the ‘awfully’ threw me so I was trying to find an anagram of composed (sigh) and 15A missed ‘entering’ as meaning ‘hidden’ in. With more experience I hope I’ll remember all these indicators.

39. My Dad was a big Palace fan. He used to look after the bikes during the match, just before the war and took me to many a game in the seventies, but for some reason I ended up supporting West Ham. Always a special game for me when they meet.
    Graham

40. Tough old day for me with a DNF. I struggled with the top half. Wouldn’t have thought of “Honey” for love, although can see it’s acceptable, probably more American than British. NHO of Tanner and knew 2D was Double something but thought I’d would start with ‘s’ as Doubles. I also failed on Panorama, trying to think of a country that would fit. I got misspelt but couldn’t parse it. Was pleased to get flounder & spruce, as do find the DDs tricky.

    Well at least it’s been a beautiful day and next week we can start again!

41. Has nobody heard of the game ‘flounders’?
    One longish course to finish but a number of biffed clues being parsed later with the comment ‘ it must be that no why?’
    Thanks all round and have a good weekend.
    1. Gosh. That takes me back! I remember playing flounders when I was less than 10 years old in the 1960s. Not seen it recently and it wasn’t a game we had when my children were growing up.
42. Tricky today. RHS was the hardest sector. FOI 7a Pagoda. LOI 6n Nail (went straight in once my POI 10a Honestly was resolved) COD 5d Crystal Palace – very clever clue IMHO. Actually a DNF as I settled 16a as Misspell – just a tad desperate by then I suppose! 22a looked as if it might be –loon, but 17D gave the C to settle that one. We’ve had 17d Spruce fairly recently, and I recall it had a very similar clue. My heart sank at 11a Lavender as horticultural clues are a weak point for me, so very pleased to resolve that one. This puzzle took me ages! Have printed off our Saturday bonus and looking forward to that. Interesting discussion on relative merits of other puzzles. I remember my early days at work and taking breakfast in the canteen at my Heinz factory to pick up news from the nightshift, and listening to the Work Study guys arguing over the DT Cryptic and being very knowledgeable of the quirks of the various setters. I think that’s deterred me all my life, but today’s discussion encourages me to ‘Have a Go’… Grateful to John for the blog and to Mara for todays brainteaser.
43. Doh
    1. As long as no-one has replied to them you can edit your comments… just hover over your comment and click the pencil icon. Glad you enjoyed it. I struggle when I’m too tired too.
       1. Thanks for this information. I am sending this reply so that I can try editing it! Oh yes, success! — easy when you know how!
          Thanks again!

          Edited at 2021-03-02 09:34 am (UTC)

44. Too tough and maybe a bit too tired, but after 32 minutes conceded with 8 to go!
    Not got Vowels — just couldn’t get it despite knowing it was a anagram.
    Cuckoo — no chance and I love birds
    Crystal Palace — not enough checkers to see it
    Honestly — no chance with love = honey
    Tanner — without the N — no chance
    Dashed — no
    Misspelt — shower = pelt ?!!! Oh dear
    No this was way out of my comfort zone.
    And I was enjoying it too!!
    Thanks all,
    John George
45. Started Friday, finished Saturday. One clue at a time, a difficult but not unpleasant slog. Could not parse Misspelt despite a lot of mulling. Lovely sunny day. Spoilt for choice what not to do.
    Thanks Mara, John and all
46. This took WAYYYY longer than usual.

    Sped through the LHS in what seems like record time, then entered some major time-dilation device aka the RHS.

    FOI 7A
    LOI 4D DNK (I’m too young at 52 to remember this)

    Could not parse 10A due to love=O burnt into brain cells.

    COD for me 22A although I really enjoyed a lot of others like 17D.

    Thanks Johninterred and Mara.
    Cheers,
    Wood.

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