Times Quick Cryptic No 2443 by Orpheus – blogging blind!

Author   TheRotterPosted on Categories Quick Cryptic

I have absolutely no idea of my time for this puzzle, as unfortunately, through a sequence of mishaps, the solution was accidentally revealed to me.  As a result, and for the first time ever, I am blogging without having first solved the grid.  However, I had no problems parsing the clues, and nothing looks too obscure or convoluted, so I am reasonably confident that you will all have faired reasonably well.  Please let me know if that is not the case.

Thanks to Orpheus – I’m sorry to have missed the challenge that you set.

Across

1  Fellow connected with one city or another (10)

MANCHESTER – MAN (fellow) and CHESTER (one city) to give MANCHESTER (another city).

8  Professional woman’s old stipulation (7)

PROVISO – PRO (professional) and VI’S (woman’s) with O{ld}.

9  Bird raced around very energetically at first (5)

RAVEN – RAN (raced) containing (around) V{ery} E{nergetically} (at first – leading letters).

10  Dull pain landing Charlie and Henry in A&E (4)

ACHE – C{harlie} and H{enry} inside A and E (A&E).

11  Speculator’s vision producing gold? (5-3)

BULL’S-EYE – BULL’S (speculator’s) and EYE (vision).  For the most part, archery targets have a yellow or gold bull’s-eye.

13  Small mouthful of food left by TV detective (6)

MORSEL – MORSE (TV detective) and L{eft}.

14  Jump about playfully, having thrown doctor in prison (6)

GAMBOL – GAOL (prison) containing MB (doctor – Medicinae Baccalaureus).

17  Shipwreck victim seeing actors off (8)

CASTAWAY – CAST (actors) and AWAY (off).

19  Support dad crossing river (4)

PROP – POP (dad) containing (crossing) R{iver}.

21  Pinch small duck (5)

STEAL – S{mall} and TEAL (duck).

22  Quill from magpie’s tail held by old man (7)

FEATHER – FATHER (old man) containing {magpi}E (tail).

23  Worn out, walk round hospital with nothing on (10)

THREADBARE – TREAD (walk) containing (round) H{ospital} and BARE (with nothing on).

Down

2  A different head of art – him presumably? (7)

ANOTHER – A{rt} (head of) and NOT HER (him presumably).

3  Cold joint and piece of fried potato (4)

CHIP – C{old} and HIP (joint).

4  Going out for a book (6)

EXODUS – Double definition, the second referring to the second book of the old testament.

5  Austrian ornately dressed (8)

TYROLEAN – Anagram (dressed) of [ORNATELY].

6  Reportedly write critical account of light entertainment (5)

REVUE – Homophone clue (reportedly), sounds like REVIEW (write critical account).

7  Bury bounder, an uninvited guest (10)

INTERLOPER – INTER (bury) and LOPER (bounder)

8  Drug dispenser’s charm is apt to spread (10)

PHARMACIST – Anagram (to spread) of [CHARM IS APT].

12  One passing on stories a shopkeeper, possibly (8)

RETAILER – Double definition.

15  European citizen’s husband tucking into fast food (7)

BURGHER – H{usband} inside BURGER (tucking into fast food)

16  Woman in fighting force initially acquiring weaving material (6)

RAFFIA – FI (random woman, usually short for Fiona) contained in RAF (fighting force) and A{cquiring) (initially).

18  Fish emitted unpleasant odour (5)

SMELT – Double definition, although I don’t think the second necessarily implies that the odour is bad or unpleasant!

22  Gibe made by bachelor supporting pub (4)

BARB – B{achelor} underneath (supporting) BAR (pub).

88 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2443 by Orpheus – blogging blind!”

  1. TYROLEAN & BULL’S-EYE slowed me down a bunch; I started off taking ‘Austrian’ to be the anagrist, then had trouble juggling (ornately)* in my head. (If left to my own devices, I probably would have spelled it Tyrolian.) Never did understand the ‘gold’ part of BULLS-EYE. Biffed ANOTHER, never parsed it. 8:14.

  2. 12:41. BURGHER took me the longest as I was going through Belarusans , Belgians, British, Bosnians etc but no luck. I even ventured out into cities -maybe Berliners or Bolognese were fast foods? I didn’t know the archery bulls-eye/gold connection until I read blog but entered it just hoping the two were somehow vaguely synonymous. I enjoyed the BULL as speculator and NOT HER=presumably him. Have to remember to banish the spelling “jail” from my thoughts when doing these puzzles!

  3. 11 minutes with a careless error because I was conscious of probably being over my 10-minute target so I bunged in an answer without understanding the wordplay.

    The rogue clue was 18dn where my early thought had been TENCH based on ‘stench’ as the ‘unpleasant odour’. But that had to be discounted because of inconvenient checkers, so I left the unches blank until the very end when in haste I wrote in SCENT which fitted with ‘odour’ in the clue but sadly nothing else.

  4. A second DNF after similar anagram trouble with “Austrian”. I’d missed BULLSEYE which would have nixed it. I flew through the rest, but spent most of my allotted time on these last two.

    See my comment yesterday about fish. Hello SMELT, meet TENCH etc.

    Tried to convince myself that a “peck” might be a duck, for speck=pinch.

    Is a review always critical? Doesn’t anyone ever get good reviews?

    Why is RETAILER a teller of stories, wouldn’t that be a RE-TALER?

    COD CHIP

    1. Critics write reviews both good and bad. I think there’s a play on words in the clue that refers to the person writing the review rather than the content.

      SOED: retail 2 verb trans. Recount; relate in detail; repeat to another.

    2. As Jackkt implies, a critical review need not necessarily be a bad one. Whilst critical can mean finding fault, it can also mean decisive or crucial, or simply relating to criticism. I imagine that a review by a professional or respected critic is always critical, whether good or bad.

      1. Agreed. During a life in Academia, I always reacted against the implication that ‘critical’ is necessarily negative (and therefore to be avoided).
        I always tried to explain that providing ‘constructive criticism’ was a key part of my job and the whole education process both for undergraduates (many of whose schoolteachers had apparently always tried to be ‘positive’ at all costs) and for postgraduates who needed constructive but honest analysis of their research work in order to progress successfully.
        Most got the message with time and realised that constructive criticism is essential and helpful as long as it is delivered in a friendly and supportive manner. John.

  5. Thanks Rotter for explaining BULL’S-EYE, I’m still not convinced it’s that great a clue. That plus EXODUS and ANOTHER held me up to come in at 11.58, so about 9 minutes quicker than yesterday. Agree about the ‘unpleasant’ reference in the definition of SMELT, we all love the smell of baking bread. It is interesting to list (as I did once, it’s since lost) all the different words for smell from bad to good, with (for example) stench at one end and aroma at the other, and neutral words like smell in the middle. The subtle gradations perhaps tell us something about how important this sense has been to us humans over the journey.

  6. A lovely puzzle to start the day, despite spending far too long trying to anagramise AUSTRIAN and chewing over BULLS EYE. All green in 22 so happy with that. That NW corner slowed me down significantly with REVUE and (the obvious) RAVEN having me scratching around for a while too. No real stand out clues today, although PHARMACIST was nice and THREADBARE made me smile.
    It looks like another lovely start to the day down here in Dorsetshire, which is great news for my new solar panels which were going like the clappers yesterday. Mrs ITTT complains that I’m becoming obsessed with them, but in my opinion enumerating the sunshine to cloud ratio from the ten day forecast and translating that into a predicted overall kWh yield through a series of Trellis Line Graphs onto her kitchen whiteboard twice a day is simply my showing a healthy interest. Quite honestly I’m surprised that she’s not more grateful.
    Oh and by the way, thanks Orpheus and Rotter 👍

    1. I went through a similar period of healthy interest 3 years ago when I had my solar panels installed. It wears off. Having recently installed air-conditioning / heating I now have two reasons to look forward to very hot weather; first an increase in solar production, and second a chance to feel cool and smug about keeping my cool. Unfortunately, this anticipated double benefit is reduced by the one using all the extra wigglies produced by the other.

      One word of warning to others considering installing solar panels – get them pigeon-proofed at installation. I just had to pay heavily for scaffolding and the proofing to get it done retrospectively, upsetting several pigeon family dynasties in the process.

      1. I did some research before having my panels installed, so was forewarened about the pigeon issue. Very happy with the installation now. Average electric bill is down from well over £120 per month to around £35, when exports are included. To get that figure I had batteries installed and switched to Eco7 tarriff which allows me to charge the batteries from the grid overnight, at around 16p per unit, and run the house off the batteries during the day. Sunny days are then a bonus rather than a necessity.

  7. Another tricky one.
    How is a newbie supposed to know all these random shortened female names like VI and FI? Is there a set list of these that one must just learn, or is any name fair game to be randomly shortened?
    TEAL took a lot of memory-dredging.
    And how does RETAILER equate to one passing on stories?

    1. Yes, I am a relative newcomer too and always wince when I see a male or female name required as part of the wordplay.
      For RETAILER think RE-TALER?

      1. I think it’s from this sense of RETAIL given in Collins (with similar defs in Chambers and the ODE): vb to relate (gossip, scandal etc) in detail, esp persistently

        1. Sorry, we crossed on this as I hadn’t seen your reply when I responded to Merlin above.

          1. Collins is available free on line here. Users need to be aware that there are often three sections under each entry: COBUILD, British English and American English. It probably makes very little difference most of the time but occasionally COBUILD can lead one astray when it comes to the finer nuances of meaning. It still catches me out from time to time!

      2. Me too, though I’m slightly less thrown off by full names like ANNE. I did wonder about RE-TALER as you suggested but couldn’t see the homophone indicator. Bletchley R has enlightened above.

      3. I took RETAILER as a homophone indicated by ‘possibly’. An enjoyable and not too tricky Friday puzzle for me. Penny dropped with BULLS EYE but it was a challenge. As above I am not a fan of abbreviated women’s names which elicit a MER every time. Fee Fi Fo Fum.
        I enjoyed ANOTHER and THREADBARE and BURGHER which took a couple of mo’s to finish in 23.20, which I felt was quite fair as I took up my usual place with a cappuccino waiting for me on the table.
        Thanks Orpheus and of course Rotter. Have a good weekend. I will be immersed in catching up on many outstanding chores that never go away on their own.
        PS Managed to parse RAVEN from Raced Around Very ENergetically at first. Oh well.

    2. You’re not expected to know all of them; you are expected to learn them.

  8. 10.32

    Struggled with EXODUS as well as BULLS EYE and finally TYROLEAN. That totally flummoxed me – well played Orpheus!

    And thanks TR

  9. Just over 10 1/2 minutes. On the harder side for a QC. I found EXODUS tough and also had difficulty nailing the parsing of RAFFIA. The brain was THREADBARE of ideas for 23a until I belatedly saw TREAD for ‘walk’. Best for me was ANOTHER, both the def and the ‘him presumably?’ wordplay.

    Thanks to Orpheus and TheRotter

  11. Found this fairly gently, with the random fish holding me up a bit at the end. Like others I initially tried anagramming ‘Austrian’ but with a couple of checkers in place the answer became clear.
    BULLS EYE went in with a bit of a shrug but it couldn’t have been anything else.
    Finished in 6.30 with COD to TYROLEAN for the misdirection.
    Thanks to Rotter

  12. Whichever side of the bed I got out of this morning (see yesterday’s discussion) I should stick to, as I whizzed through this in 7½ minutes, and only got held up by my LOI Tyrolean, where like several I was looking for an anagram of Austrian meaning dressed until the L of Bull’s eye nixed that idea. Very good misdirection!

    As I completed the puzzle I thought it would probably divide solvers. Those who see the QC as an opportunity to learn old, obscure or obsolete words will no doubt be disappointed. Those of us who enjoy well crafted puzzles with every single word in everyday use, with GK that is not too arcane, with the odd chestnut (eg Manchester), with the right degree of misleading (the aforementioned Tyrolean) and with the odd piece of really clever cluing (eg Another, my COD) will on the other hand thank Orpheus for his mastery of what a QC should be.

    Many thanks Rotter for the blog and bad luck with the reveal button – you missed out on a lovely puzzle.
    Cedric

      1. I’m not saying that learning new words is the only reason some people do the puzzle! But when (eg yesterday) I comment that I don’t really enjoy being baffled by such arcanities in a QC, there is usually a group of commentators who say they do and treat it as a positive learning point. I admire them and their open-mindedness even if on some days I don’t share it.

        1. I don’t mind the odd new word coming up but generally I see crosswords, especially the QC, as a test of what I already know. I don’t recall many of my friends at ‘O’ level wandering off after their exams to go find out more about the questions they struggled on.

        2. I’m with you. I’m not averse to learning new words (even if they’re ancient) but there’s a limit to the enjoyment of expanding my vocabulary with words I’ll never use or see used outside of cryptic crosswords

  13. This took me a lot longer than most but it was witty, a genuine QC and worth the time. MANCHESTER sprang to mind quickly but I waited for crossers as I was sure there must be other cities which fit the definition. FOI CHIP, COD TYROLEAN where, like most of you, I spent too long trying to find an anagram for AUSTRIAN, and LOI BULLS EYE. As a proud member of the SCC, I find the most enjoyable thing with crosswords is not how fast I do them but how smooth the surfaces and how well-crafted, clever and witty are the clues., so I intend henceforth to nominate a Laugh Ofthe Day. Those who biffed ANOTHER missed a good chuckle IMO, but my LOD is THREADBARE. Thanks Orpheus and Rotter, and commiserations for missing the most enjoyable QC for some time.

  14. I GAMBOLled through this today. I agree with Cedric a great crossword. I had NHO SMELT as a fish but The Gentleman had so we did finish.

    I never noticed NOT HER in 2 down and was happy to think that A. N. OTHER was him presumably.

    COD 3D Cold joint and a pice of fried fish. Making me hungry already.

    Thanks to Orpheus and The Rotter

  15. A good puzzle, apart from a few holdups and MERs which I won’t repeat because other posters have listed them above. I must mention TYROLEAN as the best bit of misdirection for a while, though.
    I completed this a minute over target at 16 mins and only managed that because I built up lots of crossers, allowing previously inaccessible answers to emerge.
    PROVISO was one of those and opened the way to my LOI, EXODUS.
    I am not sure how the BULL in BULLS EYE came to my mind, though.
    Thanks to ORPHEUS and to Rotter. John M.

  16. 18.04 corrected DNF. Put SCENT* instead of SMELT – knew it was wrong as I’d seen it come up for discussion last year but didn’t have the patience to alphabet trawl to the correct answer – this is the problem with things like yesterday – wasting 25-mins on two answers takes the energy away to care the next day. Wasn’t helped by not being sure of ANOTHER and RAFFIA where FI is obscure when weaving materials are not my speciality.

    * I think this is why SMELT is clued as “unpleasant odour” even if it’s not entirely accurate as per comments above. I’d say SCENT is never unpleasant so it can’t be the right answer.

    2. You are so right about the hangover from yesterday. I thought my LOI was going to be a long slog for which I lacked the heart. Thankfully got EXODUS before frustration/fatigue set in.

      Good time for you today. I almost put MAFFIA instead of RAFFIA. The Sicilian Mafia is one of my interests and I almost came unstuck because it it . Think I saw woman as MA!

      1. Glad to see you had a good experience today – back in line with what I see you as capable of 👍

        EXODUS was one of “my can’t see it because it’s a down answer” but as soon as I wrote it across the paper, I knew it 🤷‍♂️ A slightly frustrating flaw in my mental processing, but it is what it is, and the paper&pen are now immediately put into action when I encounter a block.

        When I saw it was Orpheus today, I momentarily dithered about doing it as I recall he was one of my three least favourite setters. But recently has come good … first 7 of year averaging 38mins, last 7 avg 19mins! We must be due an Oink tomorrow …

        1. Thanks L-Plates. Just what I needed after a tough week.

          It’s strange, but I often struggle more with the across clues. Bizarre how the mental processes work!

          I thought this was a very fair offering from Orpheus, perhaps bucking the trend of most setters getting harder. Oink is certainly due (or perhaps Wurm?)

  17. Just over 8mins – ditto everyone else on the Austrian misdirection.

    Nice puzzle thanks Orpheus and Rotter

  18. A better day today – all green in 14:33. Thought it might be a disaster, to start with, but once I got going in the SE everything seemed to fall into place quite quickly. Struggled to parse RAVEN and RAFFIA, but didn’t think they could be otherwise. Nice puzzle. Thanks Orpheus and rotter.

  19. The trickiness of TYROLEAN was compounded for me by the fact that even three of the four checkers fitted with an anagram of “Austrian”! (I was looking at T-R—A-.) But it was BULLS-EYE and LOI EXODUS that really did for me, the latter of which has given me a Bob Marley earworm.

    All done in reggo 08:40 for 1.1K and a Good Day. Now we want two quick wickets and some Bazball Bashing!

    Many thank Orpheus and Rotter.

    Templar

  20. managed this in about 10 and enjoyed it – thanks setter and blogger. I know the bulls eye in archery is gold – is it in other sports too? I would have thought that the most familiar bulls eye in world sport is the red bulls eye in darts???

  21. 10:40 (Macbeth defeats Duncan in battle to become King of Scotland)

    LOI was RAFFIA.

  22. Good puzzle, except for 11a BULLS EYE. At archery the centre is ALWAYS called GOLD, it is not bullseye. In rifle shooting the bullseye is black, in darts it can be any colour; most dartboards have any two contrasting colours. In darts it is often shortened to inner or outer, omitting bullseye altogether.
    I must admit that this rant is because I stared at _U_L_ EYE for a long time with no inspiration, so well done Orpheus.
    Thanks Rotter for the explanation of 16d RAFFIA which had eluded me.
    On edit, sorry this must have crossed with the 2 above.

  23. Raced through this and then got held up by bulls eys (where I read spectator’s vision!), exodus and revue, finishing in 11m. I also thought raven had a mistake until I saw ran for raced.
    Saw tyrolean straight away so just needed to check the spelling.

    COD another.

  24. Couldn’t parse ANOTHER and RAFFIA (thanks Rotter) and the significance of ‘gold’ in the 11ac clue for BULLS EYE eluded me completely. However for the most part this was a very pleasant solve and I found it much more straightforward than the three previous ones this week. My 15 minute time today was my first time within target this week.

    FOI – 1ac MANCHESTER
    LOI – 11ac BULLS EYE
    COD (now it’s been explained to me) – 2dn ANOTHER. 23ac THREADBARE also raised a smile.

  25. DNF. Too difficult for me. However, it was rather enjoyable.

    I answered RAVEN as I was convinced that was the answer, but I could not see where the N came from, as I was looking for the first letters of the words, and saw nothing there beginning with N. I later realise I need RAN and then some first letters to be put into RAN.

    Answered Burgher correctly, though I had no idea what, or rather who, it was.

  26. CHIP was FOI and I ambled through the rest until I was held up at the end by TYROLEAN and BULLS EYE. 8:44. Thans Orpheus and Rotter.

  27. I was perhaps fortunate not choose the wrong anagrist for TYROLEAN, but I’d already solved BULL’S-EYE by the time I got there. Two passes through the clues sufficed.

    FOI MANCHESTER
    LOI RAFFIA
    COD ANOTHER
    TIME 3:27

  28. Late getting to this today which maybe suits me as i whizzed through this in 7.32. Like others briefly considered Austrian may be the anagrist but soon worked out what was required.

  29. Medium paced throughout. Once the T of TYROLEAN was given by MANCHESTER (lived there, should have been on to it faster) it came together nicely, apart from a pause before LOI ANOTHER. Finished in 13 buy not all green as the Club wouldn’t open on my phone, so a rare ‘congratulations’ greeted my triumph.

  30. 9:16 with WOE. I spent more than a minute on my LOI and still got it wrong, having invented something called a GULL’S EYE. Quite what I thought it was, heaven only knows – some sort of gold momble, obviously! If only I’d done an alphabet trawl from the beginning 😂
    A funny solve. I can’t quite explain why I didn’t get 1a as my FOI, except I was thinking fellow = don, and knew DONCHESTER didn’t exist so just moved on – a bit too quickly, which is my wont. Otherwise, everything else went along nice and smoothly, apart from the above mentioned LOI. Unlike others, I saw the answer to the ornate Austrian straightaway but must admit that I didn’t really understand ANOTHER!
    FOI Proviso LOI (but wrong) Bull’s eye COD Tyrolean (lovely national costumes)
    Thanks Orpheus and Rotter

    1. Hello Penny,
      I remember The Gold Momble in Donchester. On match nights you had to buy a pint for your opponent if he/she finished with a gull’s-eye.

  31. I’m with the quicker commentators today coming in just over 7 minutes. Manchester and all the long outside ones went straight in. My only real pause was Exodus. Thanks for the blog – I’m sorry you had technical problems or you would probably have joined in the glow of a decent time.

  32. Made heavy weather of this but got there in the end, rubbing out bad biffs.
    Yes, could not make an anagram of Austrian! Biffed but cd not parse PROVISO, RAFFIA. Put Eagle Eye at first, sort of made sense.
    Liked CASTAWAY, THREADBARE, INTERLOPER, GAMBOL, MORSEL, BURGHER.
    FOI MANCHESTER.
    Thanks vm, Rotter.
    I like these puzzles whether I finish them or not. It’s just a bit of fun, not too serious a tragedy if things go wrong or, shock horror, I don’t agree with the definition. But, yes, MER at Fi and Vi.🙂

    1. Couldn’t agree more Countrywoman1. Surely we do these for fun, and have the option to stop when they cease to be 😁

      1. I so agree – it’s meant to be fun. I gave up doing the weekend jumbo cryptics because I stopped enjoying the challenge – they were taking too much time and I frequently DNF, so away with them! More time to spend on other things I like doing. Chin up everyone 😊

  33. All went well until the final three which took more effort. 45 minutes to finish.
    ANOTHER – only word that fitted but struggled with the parsing.
    RAFFIA – another pesky female name but grateful for the final A which helped a lot.
    SMELT – heard of Smolt and guessed Smelt was also a fish.
    Thanks Orpheus, this was good fun and Rotter too.

  34. 15/24 in ten minutes, so I thought I was on a roll, but then stopped!

    I thought the definition should be at the beginning or end of the clue, so 1A doesn’t fit this idea. I thought it would be a man’s name with O or I, and with EC, to represent “with one city”. This clue has the definition, “city”, in the middle.

    1. It’s something of a convention that definitions are at the beginning or the end rather than a rule, but in any case this clue observes it as the definition is ‘another’ and the city referred to in the middle is CHESTER. Our blogger has indicated this in his explanation.

      1. Yes, I see that now, thank you.

        My lack of consistency is annoying (other than consistently terrible!). I see sltrach’s comment, below, that MORSEL took some time, yet it jumped off the page for me!

        1. I got very hung up on ‘inspector’ in the tax inspector sense of the word rather than the Morse/police sense of the word, despite the preceding ‘TV’ which I chose to completely ignore 😂 No such trouble for you! 👏

    2. 15/24 in 10 … careful … you’re in danger of becoming adept at these!

  35. Really enjoyed this mix of misdirection, wit, chestnut, challenge and, dare I say it – a new word (or new understanding of a known word) 😁 CODs to THREADBARE and ANOTHER for making me smile. BULLS EYE/EXODUS took quite a while to work out, as did MORSEL. Wasn’t quite sure about RETAILER – thanks Rotter/Jack for explanation – didn’t know the ‘relate in detail’ sense of the word. Thanks Orpheus.

  36. 6.36, 0.8 Kevins. That’s never happened before! Sailed through today then held up a little by THREADBARE, SMELT, STEAL and RETAILER at the end. Thanks to Rotter and Orpheus.

  37. Just over 10 minutes for this enjoyable puzzle. I had a couple of problems with the parsing. For 9a I thought it was just first letters RAVE but could not see where the N came from. Thanks to Rotter for sorting me out. Another Austrian anagram but I sorted that out before getting BULL’S EYE.
    FOI MANCHESTER
    LOI BULL’S EYE
    COD GAMBOL

  38. Dnf…20 mins but put “Sweat” for 18dn for another random fish. Annoyingly I was thinking of Smelt, but was thinking of someone “smelling” something rather than the thing smelling itself, so I didn’t think it fit the wordplay.

    Looks like I’m on another bad run.

    FOI – 1ac “Manchester”
    LOI – 18dn “Sweat” (wrong)
    COD – 22ac “Feather”

    Thanks as usual!

  39. Poolside on phone, so never going to be super speedy. Today was much easier for me than yesterday (>8 mins), which was done on the plane.

    Never even considered AUSTRIAN* thankfully.

    5:25

  40. I was faster than many but slower than some. Not really stretched by this one. Now back to the cricket/golf. Thanks to setter and hinter.

  41. Like others I tried to anagram Austrian (more than once) until I got BULLS EYE and had a rethink. LOI EXODUS in an on target 8:20.

  42. A nice witty puzzle which looked a challenge but where, mostly, it fell into place easily.

  43. Having spent many summers hiking in the Tyrol, 5dn leapt off the page. On wavelength for once and finished in 16 mins. Would have been 12 or 13 but for EXODUS which needed an alphabet trawl. I actually managed to enjoy the QC today, something of a rarity of late.

    Thanks for the blog Rotter. Galling for you to miss out on a time!

  44. Tricky and DNF as I didn’t get BULLS-EYE – could only think of EAGLE-EYE that fitted, but obviously wrong. Still not quite sure about it!

  45. Mostly fairly gentle I thought, but BULLSEYE held me up for a while and I was unsure about RAFFIA and RETAILER. All correct in 16:21 though, so no complaints. Thanks Rotter and Orpheus.

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