This was fun! A little over half way through a first pass of the across clues I spotted we had something unusual going on. Some entertaining clues too – I particularly enjoyed the large cat being overwhelmed by calamari and 3D for the great word. Solved in 5:07, so about an average time for me, but your mileage may differ as there are a couple of tricky bits, such as the German river. Thank-you Breadman! How did you all get on?
It was fairly obvious, I think, but if you are still puzzled here’s what I found…
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword, entitled “The Final Frontier”, here. (As usual the title is a bit of a hint to a theme). If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 85 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | One who fails to turn up food bowl centrally (2-4) |
| NO-SHOW – NOSH (food) bOWl [centrally]. | |
| 4 | Jack meets Elizabeth, religious woman (6) |
| ABBESS – AB (Able-bodied seaman; Jack) BESS (Elizabeth). | |
| 8 | Tree canopy peripherally attracts crowd (7) |
| CYPRESS – CanopY [peripherally] PRESS (crowd). | |
| 10 | A backward idiot, reserved and haughty (5) |
| ALOOF – A, FOOL (idiot) [backwards] -> LOOF. | |
| 11 | Training unknown on top-grade peak (4) |
| APEX – A (top-grade) PE (physical education; training) X (unknown). | |
| 12 | Two pints, then European residents vacated lodging (8) |
| QUARTERS – QUART (two pints) E (European) R{esident}S [vacated]. | |
| 14 | Clothing adornment, gold, hired out through Pete at work (9) |
| EPAULETTE – AU (atomic symbol for Gold) LET (hired out), in (Pete)* [at work]. | |
| 18 | Father taken aback by pictures informally covering last supplement (8) |
| APPENDIX – PA reversed -> AP, END (last) in PIX (pictures, informally). | |
| 20 | Heard of crucial landing-place (4) |
| QUAY – Sounds like KEY (crucial). | |
| 22 | Took a picture: that’s capturing large ruminant (5) |
| OKAPI – Hidden in ToOK A PIcture. | |
| 23 | Henry follows unusual one burning Stone Age artefact (7) |
| NEOLITH – (One)* [unusual] LIT (burning) H (Henry; unit of electrical inductance). | |
| 24 | Copy campanologist? (6) |
| RINGER – Doubled definition | |
| 25 | Each recalled info about a sea between Greece and Turkey (6) |
| AEGEAN – EA (each) [recalled] -> AE, GEN (info) about A. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Pet above a river — German one (6) |
| NECKAR – NECK (pet) A R (river). I happened to know this (did you?) but not where in Germany it is. It is a major tributary of the Rhine. | |
| 2 | Premier having drink with army engineers (7) |
| SUPREME – SUP (drink) REME (army engineers). | |
| 3 | In Australia, you no longer can make public call (4) |
| OYEZ – YE (you no longer) in OZ (Australia). A traditional town crier’s call for attention. I last heard this in Clare, Suffolk on finishing the Suffolk Walking Festival Wool Town Challenge walks in May this year where we we greeted by the Clare Town Crier, as you can see here. | |
| 5 | One in local posh hotel somewhere in southwest France (8) |
| BIARRITZ – I (one) in BAR (local), RITZ (posh hotel). | |
| 6 | Standoffish, Republican failing to stress feelings (5) |
| EMOTE – {r}EMOTE (standoffish) without the R (Republican). | |
| 7 | During day, iron’s most secure (6) |
| SAFEST – FE ‘S (chemical symbol for iron;s) in SAT (day) | |
| 9 | Huge number of calamari briefly overwhelming large cat (9) |
| SQUILLION – SQUI{d} (calamari) without the last letter, [briefly], over L (large) LION (cat). A vaguely large number useful for hyperbolic statements. | |
| 13 | Illness universal in winter month — daughter itches regularly (8) |
| JAUNDICE – U (universal) in JAN (winter month) , D (daughter) ItChEs [regularly]. | |
| 15 | Broadcast live, Sue is difficult to understand (7) |
| ELUSIVE – (live Sue)* [broadcast]. | |
| 16 | Quartet carrying Authorised Version showing goodwill (6) |
| FAVOUR – AV (Authorised Version) in FOUR (quartet). | |
| 17 | Dash hopefully on the outside, with horse in enclosure (6) |
| HYPHEN – HopefullY [on the outside], H (horse) in PEN (enclosure). | |
| 19 | Quietly managed to consume whiskey and seafood (5) |
| PRAWN – P (quietly), RAN (managed) outside W (whiskey in the NATO phonetic alphabet). | |
| 21 | Joseph grasping king’s quip (4) |
| JOKE – K (King) in JOE (Joseph). | |
Not that easy a QC; I suspect there will be complaints about NECKAR and OYEZ. I surprised myself by recalling the river once I had the wordplay; if you had asked me to identify Neckar, I wouldn’t have known what to say. I biffed EPAULETTE, never parsed it. But a lot of my solves (ABBESS, for instance) were biffs in that I saw the solution first and then parsed. I didn’t realize OKAPI were that big: ‘large ruminant’ slowed me down a bit. (Speaking of large, John, you have a superfluous ‘large’ at SQUILLION: LION is just ‘cat’.) 6:27.
A large mistake… thanks for highlighting it. I thought I’d deleted the second one when I realised I needed the L for large. Corrected.
Can I be the first to complain about NECKAR? In the end I alphabet-trawled it, taking my time from 8-something to 11.09. I won’t go into details, but I always understood necking and petting to be different things. Took a while to get QUAY as well, wasn’t sure about favour = goodwill and didn’t know the engineers could have an extra ME. But all good, thanks for the blog John and the pics were delightful.
15:52. Yes, Neckar is somewhat obscure. I think it’s claim to fame is that the town of Heidelberg and its ancient university are on the Neckar. There’s a song you learn if you study German, “Alt Heidelberg, du feine”, which mentions that the town sits “am Neckar und am Rhein”.
Please not it’s………
Thanks for pointing that out- should know better!
RE. Royal Engineers
REME Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers
Or Rough Engineering Made Easy
I did not find this that bad, because somehow I knew Neckar. Squillion was a bit difficult, because I had botched up epaulette, but that was a useful correction. I never parsed abbess and okapi, both evident answers.
Time: 10:00.
At 13 minutes I am out my red zone where I have languished for the past two days, but I’m still only back to amber. I have achieved my target green (up to 10 minutes) on only one day this week.
I know a lot of German rivers and I have been to Heidelberg so NECKAR wasn’t a problem, and in fact no individual clues delayed me unduly but I was just generally a bit slow around the grid.
I spotted a pangram and noticed a lot of double letters (BB, SS x 2, OO, RR, LL, TT, PP) so I really should have considered the possibility of a double pangram.
In my haste to finish I put OPAKI in as my last solve, despite it so obviously being OKAPI. Doh! Otherwise it was pretty good for me this morning, albeit slowish. I’ve never heard of NECKAR, but managed to work it out and I did notice the unusual smattering of Zs, Qs etc, even though I’ve never heard of a pangram – let alone a double pangram.
Clues I especially enjoyed today were EPAULETTE and SQUILLION. The only unparsable for me today was EMOTE.
Thanks to Breadman and John for a pleasing end to the week’s otherwise quite tricky solving.
Enjoy your weekend everybody. I’m off to the seaside today for a picnic lunch and dip in the sea while this unusually clement spell lasts.
With due deference to Collins citing it as a synonym, I don’t consider neck and pet as alike, albeit maybe related, um, activities; necking is (was?!) I suggest, orally orientated and petting, er, rather more manual. Anyway, NHO NECKAR, my LOI. By then I realised it was a double panagram so if I had counted all the doubles I would have realised there had to be a K in there, but I didn’t.
Anyhow, ahem, generally a rather smoother puzzle than one might expect to achieve a pangram, never mind a double, so one MER is forgivable and otherwise I enjoyed this. OKAPI should appear more often, ditto SQUILLION. No problem with OYEZ given the clueing, there’s very little, or nothing else, you can put in O..Z.
This ‘petting/necking’ thing is clearly causing some consternation in here. I have to say that my main reference to the concept of ‘petting’ is those public swimming pool signs in the 60s which included ‘No Petting’ alongside other admonitions such as ‘No Bombing’ and ‘No Diving’. There was always a cartoon of a couple sitting on the side of a pool getting a little too cosy together, which in my mind would constitute ‘necking’. So I’m with Breadman in that the two terms are synonymous.
That was a tremendous sign, here it is https://www.iposters.co.uk/swimming-pool-rules-metal-wall-art-sign. If we had memes in those days I’m sure we would have made humorous versions of it.
Thanks! That’s a trip down memory lane. It brings back very fond memories – but not of petting I hasten to add!
Yes, just as I remember!
I remember it well. Classic!
I was amused by the Brittanica entry for ‘Petting’ which puts things delicately:
This contact, labelled necking or petting, is a part of the learning process and ultimately of courtship and the selection of a marriage partner.
Gee, I wish I’d known all that when I was a teenager.
Only four on the first pass but the downs helped. Then slow at the end as NECKAR and OYEZ went in from the cryptic and EPAULLETTE, NEOLITH and APPENDIX was prised out. Thought I was looking for something like jeroboam for the two pints thanks to a mistyped a in SAFEST, once that was corrected to an S QUARTERS jumped out. All green in 14. Thought there must be a nina or something as NECKAR and OYEZ went in – impressive but I never appreciate them.
9 minutes. Great to have the double pangram and there’s even a bit more to it. If you have a look you’ll see that the uncommon Z Q J X letters are placed around a central dark square, symmetrically placed in two areas of the grid; well done, Breadman!
Quite apart from the double pangram there were many enjoyable clues here. I did manage to remember NECKAR from a previous showing in the 15×15 in 2020 which helped in the NW. Other favourites were OKAPI and BIARRITZ.
Thanks to Breadman and John
[Off-topic: If you liked today’s little grid trickery, you might want to have a look at Aardvark’s FT puzzle last Tuesday.]
I imagined that the placing of those two sets of ‘highest-value-Scrabble-letters’ signified the starting point of Breadman’s grid-building
Good spot on the pattern. I managed to not notice it as I went through the alphabet circling 2 of each letter.
1439 : Gutenberg invents printing with movable type
Good to be back looking up dates rather than hunting for a seat in the SCC. Last two were APPENDIX and OYEZ. I was clueless about the Pangram so did not know I was looking for X or Z. The Nina didn’t seem forced, so well done Breadman.
I work for a company based near Heidelberg, so knew NECKAR well.
And 2 down looked like SAPPERS would be a good fit, since that is a nickname for the Royal Engineers.
COD SQUILLION, though not often seen in the singular, like an “oodle”.
Dear Merlin,
We can always find you a space in the SCC. Its capacity is infinite, so we could all just move along one seat.
P.S. To explore this concept further, you may wish to look up ‘Hilbert’s Hotel’.
“Although it’s always crowded, you still can find some room”.
Tricky in places with the unknown NECKAR and LOI OYEZ being particularly troublesome – no problem with necking/petting being synonymous in my mind. Wanted to get a double ‘p’ into QUARTERS, not being familiar with the old measures of volume.
Actually spotted that there was a pangram but then missed that it was a double.
Finished in 12.20 with COD to SQUILLION.
Thanks to John
A very good puzzle with lots to chew on. I enjoyed it but, again, cannot accept that it is a QC.
It is getting beyond a joke. Many excellent puzzles recently but, like jackkt, I am rarely within target these days. I have been doing the QC since number one and echo the recent suggestion (from L-plates? QC 2472) that solvers go back to the early ones and try their luck. I think it might be enlightening….
In the interests of honesty and accuracy, I suggest that we re-name the QC as ‘The Times NVQC’. John M.
Interesting you should say that about the earliest puzzles because I just checked my records for the first 5 weeks (10 Mar – 18 Apr 2014) and of those 25 I completed only 6 within my 10-minute target and I needed over 15 minutes for 15 of them.
My worst time was QC 01 by Des, which I blogged. It took me 30 minutes but allowances have to be made because as originally published the enumerations did not indicate multi-word and hyphenated answers.
I may do further analysis if the mood takes me but this initial study suggests that if the Golden Age of easy Quick Cryptic puzzles ever existed it developed over time and did not arrive fully formed from Day One.
Thanks, jackkt. You are probably right about the early development of the QC but my memories of the fledgling QCs are of a much more approachable, and consistent, set of truly quick crosswords.
Of course, I may well just be taking longer because I am losing my marbles but I don’t seem to have the same reaction to other crosswords that I solve on a regular basis. John.
You are not losing your marbles. I am rarely within my target these days too.
Thanks! I must say I have begun to wonder in recent months….. John.
I seem to remember there used to be lots of obscure plants when I started in 2016 resulting in lots of dnfs.
I’ve visited several of the earliest QCs – completely unscientific analysis, but my general feeling was that the quality was perhaps a little more variable than it is now.
In my humble opinion, and its something I’ve noticed more through picking the clues apart whilst blogging, the biggest difference between the QC and the 15×15 is that where the clueing for the 15×15 is usually very tight (bar the very rare clue where there seems to be a superfluous word), the clueing for the QC tends to be a little looser – for some clues, not every word is essential to the clue beyond its surface – this obviously varies from setter to setter.
Earlier this week I thought I had found you marbles, but yesterday’s DNF and today’s slow time would suggest I have lost them. Sorry!
DNF. I got NECKAR from the cryptic but failed on the NHO (no pun intended) OYEZ where I was looking for a word upside down and didn’t think of using the abbreviation OZ!
Thanks, Breadman, for a rewarding puzzle; today (at last) my hour was successful. Loved all the QXZs – that’s as far as I got towards seeing the (amazing! especially the two JQXZ around the black squares) double pangram. FOI ALOOF, COD SQUILLION (after OODLES yesterday?), LOI ELUSIVE. Thanks, John, for your expert blog; I presume 2d RE + ME are Royal Engineers and Military Engineers?
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. Here, usually RE.
Thank you. Forgive me for being slow but I’m still finding this ELUSIVE. So if it’s as you say, we need all four letters REME. But you say “here [i.e. in crosswordland?] usually RE” – in which case, RE stands for Royal Engineers, allowable as an abbreviated version, is that it? In that case, “army engineers” can be RE or REME, but *not* just ME – is that right?
I’ve been told off about this on a previous occasion so I’m wary about venturing into the subject again but iirc, both REME and RE are valid and current as corps of the British army. Some of their duties may have overlapped or been transferred between them at some point over the years, but that’s the dodgy ground I’m not getting into. One thing I’m pretty sure of is that sappers so often seen in wordplay, translates as RE. If you want to be even more confused, I’d suggest reading the Wiki articles on RE and REME.
Very many thanks – that answers two thirds of my question. Just this: what about ME (on its own), then? What (in a clue) would translate (in the grid) as ME?
“your setter”… as can be found in my latest Weekend Quick Cryptic.
Yes, I know, I know – but that doesn’t resolve my (still) confusion about the Mechanical Engineers. Please: is it possible for “army engineers” also to be ME, or can it only be RE or REME? Can anyone (please) answer this question simply and directly?
Sorry to disappoint. I can’t give you a definitive answer but can only say that in my experience I can’t remember ever seeing ME clued by ‘army engineers’ in a crossword puzzle.
According to Collins and Chambers, ME can stand for Mechanical Engineer (singular and not specified as anything military) but I can’t recall ever seeing that in a crossword either.
You are so kind – thank you for the benefit of your wisdom and experience. I think (despite the dictionaries) I’ll take that as a “probably not”!
Royal Engineers (RE) soldiers are called sappers, they build bridges, blow stuff up and bomb disposal, purify water, build forts, maintain military communications etc.
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME) soldiers are called craftsmen, they maintain guns, artillery, vehicles ( tanks, helicopters), weapons systems etc.
They are entirely separate corps of the army.
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. My dad was in it.
On Edit: Oops, sorry Kevin hadn’t noticed yr answer.
No time but that was on the hard side, I was helped by having a break in the middle. Finishing with ringer, okapi, cypress, emote, abbess, and LOI neckar.
COD Okapi
Remember OKAPI as its the repeated closing line said on The Damned’s album Machine Gun Etiquette- “Nibbled to death by an Okapi”. Which they got from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy as it is how Arthur Dent’s brother met his demise.
I was only saying the other day that I must re-read THGTTG, having struggled more than I would have expected with a question relating to it on Pointless.
I now realise I’d completely forgotten about Arthur’s poor nibbled brother as well.
Again several complex clues, only gettatable for me with several crossers. Wish I’d noticed the Nina.
Was pleased to get Neckar but not sure where I dredged that up from.
Anyway no NOSHOWS.
LOI EMOTE
COD QUAY which made me smile when I finally got it.
Thanks Breadman and John
In the SCC today, finishing in 21:56. The NW corner was my nemesis. My last two were SUPREME and APEX.
I had initially biffed SAPPERS for 2d, which delayed my seeing EPAULETTES. I was familiar with the RE from past crosswords, but not with the REME.
I have been to Heidelberg, but took a while to remember the Neckar.
The OKAPI is one of several animals mentioned in Flanders and Swan’s Gnu song (… call me Bison or Okapi and I’ll sue…)
Thanks John and Breadman
In the blogger’s hidden finding shouldn’t that read “at least twice?”
I found this one to be tough though enjoyable. Yes, NECKAR & OYEZ we’re perhaps a little too obscure for a QC.
Completed. Just.
Yes. That was imprecise of me. Will update. Thanks.
I found this much trickier than usual. No trouble with FOI, NO SHOW followed by OYES, but the NHO NECKAR was my LOI. Needed SQUILLION to get CYPRESS., and that took a while as calamari looked like calaman on my ipad screen. once I’d deciphered it I biffed it without looking for a large cat. Looking back there’s nothing that should have been so tricky, apart from not knowing NECKAR, but I was sluggish overall. 14:49. Thanks Breadman and John. PS, as usual not a clue about the double pangram!
8:19
Enjoyably tricksy grid from Breadman, nice to see plenty of less common words – didn’t spot the double pangram though did notice whilst in flight, lots of Qs and Js particularly. My only remarks are that I’d never heard of NECKAR but it was kindly clued, and I didn’t parse EPAULETTE until after completion.
Thanks Breadman and John
Fun puzzle, very smooth for a DOUBLE pangram. For the first time ever I did spot that it was a pangram, and thought that there were really a lot of Qs, but didn’t investigate further.
I’m sure I’ve seen NECKAR on wine bottles, even though I don’t drink much German, so not very obscure IMO. Surprised OYEZ gave trouble, same comment again.
COD NOSH OW.
My bubble of elation at having noticed (for once) that there was something going on (“It’s a pangram!”) was immediately burst by coming here and finding that I’d missed the double … rats.
I thought that was a tough but entirely fair QC, although the NHO LOI NECKAR went in with a shrug and a prayer. I thought it was really obscure but then I’m rubbish at geography and lots of people have already said that they knew it so fair enough. Just my ignorance.
I liked ABBESS (tried hard to make her a JEZEBEL, sorry ma’am) and QUART a lot. All green in 10:15 for 1.6K and a Decent Enough Day.
Many thanks Breaders and John.
Templar
Made heavy weather of this and finally had to look up Peak for APEX which enabled me to get LOI NECKAR, which I had vaguely heard of.
Felt smug about solving BIARRITZ fairly early on but it didn’t help as much as I hoped. FOI CYPRESS. Biffed EPAULETTE, turned out to be right. Liked
APPENDIX, SQUILLION (is this really a word?), NEOLITH, EMOTE, SUPREME, and indeed OYEZ!
Thanks vm, John.
A steady solve until the last few hold-outs. The nho Neckar and wrong end of clue Apex pushed me into the SCC, by which time I had no heart to begin an alpha-trawl for loi 6d based on E*o*e. Just couldn’t see what was going on with that clue. CoD to 23ac Neolith, with Oyez a close second. Invariant
Easier than the last couple of days.
Was it a hard week? A little easier than last week (average of 7.3 mins versus 7.7 mins last week), but there have been much tougher ones for me. My yearly average is about 6 mins 45 seconds – which is about where I thought it would be. I’m faster than I was when the QC came along to rescue me from the torment of being beaten by the main puzzle most days. Back then dipping under 10 mins was a good time. On that basis the puzzles must be getting easier.
QUAY LOI after HYPHEN. NHO NECKAR, but cluing was easy enough.
7:06
Yet another tricky one, but I was more attuned to the wavelength of the setter than of late, and crossed the line in 9.00. Like some others have never heard of the NECKAR, although the cryptic direction was fairly clear. My LOI was OYEZ which I returned to a couple of times before the penny dropped.
My running total for the week was 57.29 giving a daily average of 11.30, a minute and a half outside target. This was at least an improvement on last weeks 12.30 average. The figures seem to suggest that (for me at least), a tougher than average standard for the last two weeks.
16.46 I completely missed the nina but I was pleased to get the NHO river. 2d desperately wanted to be SAPPERS. Once I’d got over that I biffed LOI EPAULETTE.
I thought an hour and 46 minutes for the week was my worst since I started counting six months ago, but I was delighted to find I was a minute slower in late June.
Thanks to John and Breadman.
I found this easier than yesterday although LOI NECKAR was unknown. Much to like including OYEZ, EMOTE and JAUNDICE (great surface). Spotted lots of unusual letters and guessed at a pangram, but not a double! This took me quite a while but I really enjoyed it. Many thanks to John and Breadman.
Enjoyed this, thanks Breadman.
Like others, I was delighted to spot it was a pangram but didn’t spot the double. Excellent achievement! Mr SR did comment that there were a lot of words with double letters, but even that didn’t push us far enough towards the correct spot.
Unusually, I got Neckar before Mr SR (his geography is better than mine), but then realised that what I’d really heard of was Necker the island belonging to Richard Branson, so it was a short-lived moment of triumph.
Also wanted to say how much we enjoyed your photos and description of the Suffolk walk, John. We always enjoy the blogs but that was a real highlight.
Glad you enjoyed the Suffolk walk blog post. I meant to include just a link to the photo of the town crier shouting “Oyez!”, but linking to the whole post was easier.
37 mins…
Got there in the end, but 1dn “Neckar” and 12ac “Quarters” took a significant chunk of time, and I had to cross my fingers for the former.
Wasn’t sure about the definition for 15dn “Elusive” – although I’m guessing it’s one of those words whose meaning has possibly changed over time.
FOI – 10ac “Aloof”
LOI – 1dn “Neckar”
COD – 3dn “Oyez”
Thanks as usual!
Trick-eee! 48 minutes of hard graft for me, but I crossed the line error free in the end.
I was alerted to the possibility of a pangram by my FOI (QUARTERS) and to the possibility of a double-pangram by SQUILLION (my word of the day), which came some time later.
I was held up for a long time by biffing SUPRess, which meant EPAULETTE was impossible and had several knock-on effects. However, I stuck at it and, apart from OYEZ, everything was parsed.
Many thanks to Breadman and John.
6.43
A second in a row good one for me where closely following the w/p paid dividends, with no obscure cryptics and tantalising DDs to frustrate.
I’m useless at quizzes and rate my GK as pretty weak but here NECKAR rang a bell and OYEZ went straight in.
Loved the double pangram
Thanks Breadman and John
Walked the section of that route between Cavendish and Clare this Wednesday. The world is sometimes small.
Enjoyed this puzzle, it felt to be the easiest of the week for us. Had to sort out 23a neolithic, otherwise no real problems.
Another nightmare solve. This was many things, but fun wasn’t one of them. 45 mins today, making a weekly time of 2 hours, 48 mins.
I have solved the last 15 QCs, but with ever decreasing levels of enjoyment. Either they are just getting harder or my skills are diminishing rapidly. So many of the clues today just made no sense to me for much of the solve. My confidence level is at rock bottom.
Thanks for the blog John. Hope everyone has a good weekend.
it was a tough one today. keep going.
Thanks flashman – I will!
That’s the spirit, Gary, you have a good weekend too.
Goodness! That was completely beyond my SCC standard. Could barely parse one. Looking at the blog I realised I was well out my depth so hung up spurs. Hoping for more Q and a little kinder C week. Phew. Thanks for your blog John! Clever stuff. Off to brain train.
Another one that pushed me into the SCC, at 21:21, finishing a week where I was inside my target only once. But I enjoyed this a lot, and actually spotted that is was a double pangram. Which sadly didn’t help me with my LOI, QUAY, because there were THREE Qs!
COD SQUILLION.
Thanks to both John and Breadman, who is becoming one of my favourite setters.
Done after a hard day’s sightseeing in one of the world’s smallest countries – Liechtenstein (yes it is big enough, just, to fill a full day) – and all completed in just under 11 minutes for a Good End to the Week. And I spotted the double pangram too!
Neckar not a problem as I spent a most enjoyable few days in Heidelberg some 10 years ago, and Oyez well known to any City of London liveryman, so the two potential traps were negotiated comfortably, but I do agree they are neither of them common GK.
Many thanks to John for the blog and I look forward to the Saturday Special.
Cedric
I hope you got your passport stamped!
Johninterred – thanks for the blog which is so useful to those of us still learning and don’t find it obvious 👍🙂
Loved Squillion
Thanks for commenting. I found the blog useful when I was learning too!
My hope for an easier end to the week was not fulfilled. Yet another very hard puzzle, especially the NW corner. Knew NECKAR, however! Again needed a bit of help to finish.
This will make all of you feel very much better. It takes us DAYS to complete the Quick Cryptics. But days of fun for two old codgers here in France for a while. A whole new universe has been born.
Hi Gina. How lovely. Glad you enjoy them. I hope you find the blogs useful to help you along. I know I did when I was trying to learn.