Lovely puzzle, another quite tricky one.
I thought this was going to be tough, only getting 4ac from the first six acrosses. Things picked up, but there was good misdirection aplenty, and I never felt entirely on top of things, right up to my LOI at 2d.
Lots of good clues, my favourites being the &litty 12ac, the playful 3d, and of course our old friend at 1ac, who’s finally off duty as an anagram indicator and busy letting their hair down among the answers.
I finished up in 8:04, pretty much the same time as yesterday’s done just before. Top notch – many thanks to Mara!
| Across | |
| 1 | Deliver in flexible manner (6) |
| SUPPLY – double definition. Chambers has the adverb as either supplely or supply. | |
| 4 | Dampen down fire initially in wooden gate (6) |
| STIFLE – F (Fire “initially”) in STILE (wooden gate) | |
| 8 | Little piece back in concert, sacred music (5) |
| MOTET – MOTE (little piece) T (“back” in concerT) | |
| 9 | Tom, say, passes round empty nightclub (7) |
| CABARET – CAT (tom, say) passes round BARE (empty). | |
| 10 | Weaken fool (3) |
| SAP – double definition | |
| 11 | Dodgy articles entertaining new thief (9) |
| LARCENIST – anagram (dodgy) of ARTICLES entertaining N(ew) | |
| 12 | Half of Budapest spread around north European river (6) |
| DANUBE – anagram (spread) of BUDA (half of BUDApest) around N(orth) E(uropean). A semi-&lit clue: an &lit is where the whole clue provides both cryptic wordplay and a literal definition; that is almost the case here, except the word RIVER is not providing any cryptic wordplay, hence it being a semi-&lit. | |
| 13 | Expressive American author, little jerk! (6) |
| POETIC – POE (american author) TIC (little jerk) | |
| 16 | Go ahead and stay with me (2,2,5) |
| BE MY GUEST – double definition | |
| 18 | Pub staff (3) |
| BAR – double definition, the second as in a bar or rod | |
| 19 | An infinitesimal particle unknown in study of the body (7) |
| ANATOMY – AN, ATOM (infinitesimal particle), Y (unknown, in maths, say) | |
| 20 | Player with quality missing header (5) |
| ACTOR – fACTOR (quality) missing “header” | |
| 22 | Devoted loyal pet fed can (6) |
| DOTING – DOG (loyal pet) fed TIN (can) | |
| 23 | Design extraterrestrial world (6) |
| PLANET – PLAN (design) ET (extraterrestrial) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Problem not all discussed? (3) |
| SUM – is discussed, or heard, the same as SOME (not all) | |
| 2 | Pitch working, used (3-4) |
| PUT-UPON – PUT UP (pitch) ON (working). I was thinking vaguely along the lines of to pitch = to loft or put up in the air, but Collins has the rather better idea of pitching or putting up a tent. USED in the sense of taken advantage of. | |
| 3 | Arguably middle-sized instrument for battle (6,7) |
| LITTLE BIGHORN – Double definition. A bit of a chestnut, with a MER at “arguably”: the little bighorn can be very hard to distinguish from its cousin the big smallhorn, which is certainly mid-sized. Alternatively: a single definition, along with LITTLE BIG (whimsically middle-sized) and HORN (instrument). | |
| 5 | Tall tale of Bob playing pub game (5,8) |
| TABLE FOOTBALL – anagram (playing) of TALL TALE OF BOB, also known as FOOSBALL. | |
| 6 | Language if rash almost incomprehensible (5) |
| FARSI – anagram (incomprehensible) of IF RAS (RAS |
|
| 7 | Vehicle at rest broken down, one held up (6,3) |
| ESTATE CAR – anagram (broken down) of AT REST, with ACE (one) contained (or “held”), “up”, as in reversed. | |
| 9 | Stopper I say ending in neck? (4) |
| CORK – COR! (I say!) K (“ending” in necK) | |
| 10 | Tatty bed, or said furniture item (9) |
| SIDEBOARD – anagram (tatty) of BED OR SAID | |
| 14 | Giant captures live native of the Far East (7) |
| TIBETAN – TITAN (giant) captures BE (to be = to live = to exist) | |
| 15 | Each hasn’t begun so (4) |
| VERY – EVERY (each) hasn’t “begun” | |
| 17 | Average time calculated (5) |
| MEANT – MEAN (average) T(ime) | |
| 21 | Animal in water, a turtle (3) |
| RAT – “in” wateR A Turtle | |
Hurrah!
I agree with rolytoly. Never quite got on top of this, though that might be the large quantity of BBQ resting in my stomach.
LOI was SUM. LITTLE BIGHORN made me smile.
7:45
How can you say you ‘Never quite got on top of this’ when you did it in under 8mins?!
Because per the Quitch his average time is 06:07 and therefore this took him 26% longer than usual! It’s all relative.
One should add that The Little Bighorn was the name of the 19th century battle in Western United States which resulted in General Custer’s Last Stand and the annihilation of his 7th cavalry troopers at the hands of Native Americans. Hence the word ‘battle’ in the clue. It wasn’t referring to a species of cattle. The Little Bighorn is actually the name of the river near where the battle took place.
The title of the movie, Little Big Man starring Dustin Hoffman, is a play on the name of the battle.
A good film, and an even better book. Arguably, THE American novel.
I see your determination to get in first paid off – congrats!
Life goals daipugh – keep ’em small and you’ll never be disappointed!
I found this very hard at my first pass. Sums are not usually problems for me. Nor was I was sure 6about Tibetan as Tibet is not usually considered to be in the Far East. It is not in the Middle East I suppose!!
It’s “part of China” now… so they say.
Referring to Tibet as Far East simply because it is (rightly or wrongly) part of a country that has other regions that are undeniably Far East is like suggesting Vladivostok or Cayenne are European cities.
Chewy. Liked Little Bighorn. Never really got into the flow and it took me too long. Not my cup of tea so I shall just plod into the club at 35 mins for a coffee and re-read Roly’s debrief to fully explain VERY and others.
Thanks Mara.
11 minutes. My fastest time of a poor week so far. Onwards and upwards! I lost time over the parsing of ESTATE CAR having easily biffed it.
I didn’t notice the problem with TIBETAN. It seems it’s actually in the western part of East Asia although some sources consider it part of Central Asia due to its geographical and cultural similarities with the region.
I think VERY, MOTET and PUT UPON were tough clues to weave into a QC, but all the same my unspectacular time of 16.26 was very much my fault, not Mara’s. Missed too many anagrams, was held up for way too long by the battle and the game, was fooled by the SUPPLY chestnut – I blame the anti-virals. Thanks Roly.
We thought your meme was maybe on a beach in front of a hut but have just expanded to see it’s Dockery Farm. We were there last September, fascinating place! Are you local or also just visiting?
Just visiting from Oz. We went through the delta at the end of 2019, it was like a pilgrimage, unforgettable. Greetings to our fellow travellers!
We had a fabulous trip. Did you get to the BB King museum in Indianola? For anyone else visiting Mississippi we would highly recommend it.
TBH we had been to so many museums from Memphis to there we were a bit museumed out, but more to the point we were seriously occupied in the (eventually successful after several wrong turns) search for the grave of Charley Patton at nearby Holly Ridge. Which is not a ridge, and there’s no holly…
Found this tough to get into, 6 minutes on the clock and still nothing! FOI Danube led to a trickle before we got going. A few seemed just a bit odd to us and we needed Roly’s help parsing several! In the end finished in a bit of a rush in 26.16 but felt much longer.
Thanks Mara and Roly.
I only solved four Across clues on my first pass, but the Down clues were more forgiving and I eventually stumbled over the line in my second slowest time of the week – and it’s been a tough week by my exacting standards!
FOI SAP
LOI PUT UPON
COD LITTLE BIGHORN
TIME 5:20
Gosh, I can often echo others’ comments but I don’t think I have ever been in the position to echo Busman’s almost word for word. I also solved four Across clues on my first pass, and then found the Down clues were more forgiving, etc etc. The only difference is that it took him 5:20 and me nearly 4 times as long, coming home in a touch under 19 minutes.
So something of a struggle from start to finish as I never really got into a rhythm, with even the shorter clues holding me up inordinately, right up to my LOI VERY. But all done in the end, though I never parsed PUT UPON, with PUT UP for pitch a bridge too far for me.
Many thanks Roly for the blog
Cedric
Found this a bit of a struggle so I was relieved to come here and to see it wasn’t just me being dozy! Having said that I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge as I thought Mara was on top form.
Started with DANUBE and finished with POETIC in 12.24 with COD to LITTLE BIGHORN.
Thanks to rolytoly
Well, it all now seems quite straightforward, but what a struggle getting to the finish line. If I had trusted my instincts and gone with Motet/Put Upon, the NW would have been a solid foothold, but I couldn’t initially parse either, so moved on to what became a hop all over the grid type solve. Loi 15d, Very, required a cup of coffee before I could see what was going on, so no surprise to find it was standing room only by the time I got to the SCC. Cork and Poetic were much enjoyed along the way, but CoD has to be Little Bighorn for the pdm. Invariant
17m
My struggles were in the NW, didn’t parse sum or put upon. Forgot ace = 1.
COD table football or poetic.
DNF as 1 across defeated me as I had SET-UPON. “Set up” is just as good as “put up” for pitch where tents are concerned. And “set upon” certainly can mean “turned against” or “used”. When no words would fit I rechecked my crossers but they all looked fine.
Is “sum” still used for all Maths problems? Seems a bit dated.
Generally tough, but I did the 15×15 first, so maybe all clued out.
COD LITTLE BIGHORN
Above my paygrade, made harder by solving on a phone on a deckchair on a campsite. Should have got ‘put up’ for pitch rather sooner in the circumstances. MOTET gets a special mention for being very hard. Glad it’s over.
Keep a wary eye out for STRIKE on the day you leave the campsite.
I solved 8 across clues on first pass, but 6 of them were in the bottom half! So I had to build slowly upwards.
Very good but jolly tough puzzle, I thought. When I finally got MOTET I assumed it was going to turn out to be an Izetti but no, Mara baring his teeth. Took me 12:16 for a Bamboozled Day.
Many thanks Mara and roly.
14:59
Also took a while to get going, and even when I did it wasn’t exactly quick. Hesitated for too long over almost everything here, and wasn’t on form with the anagrams. ESTATE CAR almost seems redundant, but perhaps I’m overexposed to the contraction. NHO LITTLE BIGHORN, but have heard of the bighorn sheep, after which I’m guessing the ground and battle are named.
13:59. A similar experience to everyone else, with only three of the across clues solved on first pass. My final clues were all in the NE corner, with LARCENIST, POETIC, ESTATE CAR and FARSI all hard to see.
Thanks Roly and Mara
Somehow finished it though a good deal of shoulders being shrugged. FOI SUPPLY but had to hunt about for a second. NE corner was hardest: NHO incomprehensible as anagram indicator; it had to be ESTATE CAR but parsing too contorted for me; LOI STIFLE. Guessed NHO LITTLE BIGHORN (more US culture; wonder how many Americans know the names of British battles?). Liked DANUBE, and TABLE FOOTBALL very clever.
9:53
Tough week so far. On reflection, I’m not sure what held me up here. Perhaps I solved in the wrong order.
FOI and COD DANUBE
LOI POETIC
Thanks all.
Dnf…
Slow going throughout, but I came to a halt with the 8ac “Motete” and 2dn “Put Upon” axis, that just wouldn’t come no matter how hard I tried. Have we had the “is a stile a gate?” debate before? I’m guessing it must be, but I always think of a gate having a door/hinge. Similarly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen table football in a pub – but perhaps that’s just me.
FOI – 6dn “Farsi”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 16ac “Be My Guest”
Thanks as usual!
I had a bit of a MER at the stile/gate thing as well.
Oh yes, so did I, I’d forgotten. I had a mental bet that it would be justified by Collins, and so it is – second meaning is “short for turnstile”, and “turnstile” is then “a mechanical gate or barrier”.
Hmm. While I understand Templar’s justification above, I did think it was very loose to clue STILE as a ‘wooden gate’. Very few wooden gates are stiles, and there are plenty of stiles that are not wooden. Or, as you imply, gates at all in the conventional use of the term.
Overall this was the last straw in a resounding DNF for me. No criticism of the setter, but thinking this far out of the box is way beyond my current abilities.
I found this mainly straightforward finishing in 12 minutes.
At least two of those were spent at the end trying to parse PUT UPON. I got there finally with a slight frown.
I knew MOTET had to be right.
I must have solved in the right order.
COD to BE MY GUEST.
David
Another slow but enjoyable day. LOI STIFLE. Forgot ace = one so couldn’t parse ESTATE CAR. No problems with MOTET or LITTLE BIGHORN. Biffed then parsed VERY. FOI SUM – made me smile and is COD. Another toughie. Thanks roly.
10 minutes. Not too many problems though I needed the crossers for FARSI. Favourites were LITTLE BIGHORN and the clever DANUBE.
I found this very tough for a QC finishing in 14.28. I got only two answers to the across clues on my first pass, but fortunately the down clues were more forgiving. I did think of DANUBE for 12ac fairly quickly, but I wouldn’t put it in until I’d parsed it, and that took a while. STIFLE was my LOI, and that must have taken over a minute to solve.
Another DNF. Found this one to be too difficult for me. But at least I learnt another excuse to add to my growing list: Excuse #7 – ate too much. 🤣
DNF.
These puzzles are just too hard for me.
Giving up for the foreseeable.
Also thought this was quite hard for a quickie. I generally skip about the grid, but quite necessary this time. Ended up with 15d and POETIC as LOsI. Eventually got VERY but had to do an alphabet trawl for POETIC. No excuse for not thinking of Poe, but a MER at poetic meaning evocative. They are absolutely not synonymous, whatever the dictionaries say.
Much to think about, rather than ‘biff and parse’, so very much enjoyed. My COD is probably DOTING, as it took me at least a minute to parse the clue (“a fed pet can do what? eh?”) – sigh, what a drag it is getting old 🙂
Yesterday was tough for me and today was tougherer. DNF with PUT UPON, VERY and POETIC too much for me, the latter now so obvious as to inspire mild internal fury. Moderately pleased to have got that far, as very little came easily, but Mara is my bogeyman setter.
MER at use of stile which around here in no way resemble a gate and are as likely to be made of granite.
Oh well, tomorrow will doubtless make it all better. Hmm.
STILEs are “as likely to be made of granite” near you: as are hedges, I believe. Am I correct?
Or edges if you’re a cockney.
Yes, a “Cornish hedge” is what most people would see as a dry stone wall incorporating vegetation, often some type of hedging. Built to deter non Cornish motorists on roads that are just too narrow to allow two SUVs to pass without body damage…
Too much for me, beaten by MOTET after spending 27 minutes on everything else.
Thank you for the blog!
I found this tough too. Didn’t solve a clue until CORK, then BAR, TIBETAN and PLANET got me moving. Worked my way back to the NW finishing with SUPPLY, SUM, PUT UPON(long suspected but not parsed until the end) and finally MOTET. 13:37. Thanks Mara and Roly.
Dnf
But how good is PUB STAFF as a clue? So good.
19:17, a respectable time for me, so I suppose I’m clawing my way back into crosswordland after my absence. This was a sweet puzzle, I join the applause for LITTLE BIGHORN and DANUBE! (I was surprised to see that bit of Americana.) I share in the MER over “wooden gate” for “stile” and add my personal MER over “quality” for “factor”. But quibbling is just my way of chewing on the puzzle for a little more fun. I had a bad case of last-clue-itis on 13A POETIC, having forgotten somehow that Poe is virtually the only American author in crosswordland.
Many thanks Mara and Roly!
Another slower than average day though at least 20s of our 15:17 total was taken up by a crossed purpose and possibly hangry squabble about the parsing of DANUBE! That should teach us not to do it before lunch again. Didn’t like stile for wooden gate no matter what the justification might be from Collins, it’s forgiveable though. Didn’t parse ESTATE CAR fully through not taking the time to see the Ace so thank you, Roly, and thanks to Mara.
14:06. Slow to see fACTOR for quality. Liked BE MY GUEST most.
Another tricky challenge!
I reached the finish line after 33 minutes, but (the NHO) MOTET was written in only faintly. I then spent a further 7-8 minutes trying, unsuccessfully, to parse the ‘back in concert’ part of the clue. I never did work it out, so I don’t know whether or not to add those extra minutes onto my time.
PUT UPON was my second last in and SUM, SUPPLY and POETIC all put up stiff resistance.
Many thanks to Mara and Rolytoly.
Very slow start, but slowly made progress from s.e.corner, all in all a bit above my pay grade, too.
Tough but very satisfied to finish successfully and enjoy a quiet cuppa in the SCC. Very pleased to get LITTLE BIGHORN early on given my minimal knowledge of US history.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one jumping around the grid. SUM came easily but not SUPPLY. There were some interesting anagram indicators (tatty and incomprehensible) which slowed me a little and LITTLE BIGHORN needed most of the checkers. LOI, like others here, was the clever PUT UPON, pity the surface (no pun intended) isn’t quite as good as it should be. 9:34
14:28
Very hard, I thought, though in retrospect, it’s not that clear why. Apart from 6d, 8a and 11a, there are no uncommon words. Only five entered in the first round, improving with the second round but ultimately stuffed by a pink letter – had been typing in POETIC, but somehow the OE went in the down column creating a new sport called FOETBALL – didn’t notice. Ho hum.
Thanks Roly and Mara
FOETBALL: A game for the unborn?
They start them early these days…
Needed aids to figure out Bob’s game (darn long anagrams!) and finished well in the SCC at 24:04. An excellent workout.
Thanks to Mara and rolytoly.
SUPPLY went straight in and I plodded on (quite flexibly) from there, finishing in 16 minutes. Took longest over the POETIC/TIBETAN crosser, LOI. ARTICLES plus N to give LARCENIST made me smile, very ingenious. But the two meanings of BE MY GUEST made that my COD. Very enjoyable puzzle, thanks to setter and blogger!
Found this very hard and failed to solve a number of clues. Not a good day.
15ish min fail due to Motet and Poetic ( especially annoying as I had every letter except P and E). Loved Little Bighorn. Thanks all
I found this one tough but managed to finish in 24 minutes – it seemed longer! Failed to parse MOTET and ESTATE CAR. Needed almost all the crossers for the long down clues. A MER at wooden gate = stile whatever the reference books might say.
FOI – 13ac POETIC
LOI – 8ac MOTET
CODs – 16ac BE MY GUEST and 3dn LITTLE BIGHORN
Thanks to Mara and Rolytoly
23.33 The NW took an age. I finally got LITTLE BIGHORN, which led to SUPPLY, PUT UPON, the NHO MOTET and a biff of SUM to finish. Thanks rolytoly and Mara.
A DNF, beaten in the NW which had some tough ones for me.
Pleased to solve the rest though and I did enjoy 13a POETIC and 23a PLANET.
Thanks both for your hard work.
DNF, defeated by the PUT UPON/MOTET crosser. The rest was difficult, too. I am not surprised that several others thought the same. Hard work.
Found this one tough but kept going and eventually finished. Not sure why it came across as difficult having finished, maybe it was only getting one across clue on first pass. Somehow it feels more satisfying when I’ve really struggled but finally lay down my pen!
35 minutes of hell.
I don’t improve and so I don’t enjoy it. No pleasure in such a poor time, with MOTET, CABARET and VERY total guesses. Would never have got 3dn from the word play, which I was totally unable to decipher.
A humiliating 129 minutes so far this week, with a DNF and a best time of 28 minutes. How am I supposed to derive any satisfaction from that abysmal performance?
I’ve invested so much time in trying to develop my skills – including grinding my way through several of the big crosswords – and I am absolutely nowhere.
I dare say that I will be back for more torture tomorrow. Dreading it TBH. I’m lacking both confidence and skill.
Thanks for the blog.
You got three tricky answers (including my loi) without knowing why. Your brain must be tuned in, just turn up the volume 😉
Thanks Invariant 😊
I think 12ac could work in a different way with the clue being “European river”. Buda is the northern part of Budapest which sits on the Danube.