Times Quick Cryptic No 2773 by Cheeko

A toughie, but more accessible than Cheeko’s debut a month ago.

As someone who started doing cryptics well before the advent of the QC, I’ve spent many an hour staring with increasing exasperation at a stubbornly blank grid. Obviously, therefore, I consider it only proper that everyone should have to suffer similarly should they wish to pursue this most noble art of time wasting.

It would certainly be a much less interesting puzzle if you knew what to expect each day, and there wasn’t a broad range of difficulties; there is with the main puzzle, which this QC easily overlaps with: I came in at 12:19 (with a number unparsed), well over double yesterday’s QC and only three minutes slower than yesterday’s main puzzle, which wasn’t exactly easy.

Getting the four long anagrams might have helped, but I needed a fair number of checkers for all of them except 5d. I really enjoyed the challenge, and some lovely bits of novelty and humour (not least 1ac) – many thanks to Cheeko!

PS: in Cheeko’s previous puzzle there was a small Nina. There’s possibly something similar today, but it is very slight unless I’m missing something more:

 

In Cheeko’s last puzzle, the 4 clues at N, S, E and W (so in this puzzle that would be 4d, 15d, 14ac and 13ac) were all anagrams of each other. In this puzzle they all begin with H, and then there’s the large black H in the centre of the grid. As I said, very slight, could almost be one’s imagination!

 

Across
1 Spat mum’s chop out — no need for these? (7,5)
STOMACH PUMPS – anagram (“out”) of SPAT MUMS CHOP. The definition refers back to the seemingly sensible decision to eschew good table manners for good health.
8 Warning in the style of Royal Marines (5)
ALARM – A LA (in the style of) RM (royal Marines)
9 Moderately slow poet pursues article (7)
ANDANTE – DANTE (poet) pursues AN (article)
10 Run, say, number on estate? (3)
REG – R (Run, in cricket) E.G. (say/for example). Estate as in the car.
11 Insect crossing black sticky stuff is slowing down (9)
RETARDANT – RED ANT (insect) crossing TAR (black sticky stuff)
13 Popular, outwardly ethereal holiday venue (5)
HOTEL – HOT (popular) EL (“outwardly” EthereaL)
14 Nag Romeo, in tights (5)
HORSE – R(omeo) in HOSE (tights). Nag as in an old horse.
16 Give Cheeko money in split debt settlement (9)
REPAYMENT – PAY ME (give Cheeko [i.e. the setter] money) in RENT (split/torn)
17 Not prepared to retreat in conflict (3)
WAR – RAW (not prepared) to “retreat”
19 Published British newspaper best when boasting (7)
OUTBRAG – OUT (published) B(ritish) RAG (newspaper). To BEST in the sense of to OUTDO.
21 Famous landscaper’s name on top of hill (5)
BROWN – N(ame) on BROW (top of hill). As in Capability Brown.
22 PM Heath irate about site for old contest (12)
AMPHITHEATRE – anagram (about) of PM HEATH IRATE.
Down
1 Section of flight starts to surge through sky (5)
STAIR – “starts” to Surge Through, and AIR (sky)
2 Butterfly operating strangely (6-3)
ORANGE-TIP – anagram (strangely) of OPERATING
3 Matriarch lady moving somewhere in London (9,4)
ADMIRALTY ARCH – anagram (moving) of MATRIACH LADY
4 Male with skills makes suit (6)
HEARTS – HE (male) with ARTS (skills)
5 Illicit burden athlete dealt with (5,3,5)
UNDER THE TABLE – anagram (dealt with) of BURDEN ATHLETE
6 Vessel in first half of canal (3)
PAN – PANama (“first half” of the canal). It was hard not to wonder if CAN could possibly be a very loose half of CANAL, especially with a C in the anagram fodder of 1ac. Having said that, I wonder if “can” could be half of “camel”, say, by dividing the M in half into N and N giving CAN and NEL? Perhaps: “Bog in front half of lawns? (3)”. It would definitely be a device you’d see in the Guardian; I have a vague memory of seeing something similar in the Times, but it’s a tricky thing to search for!
7 Insect let loose after another insect (6)
BEETLE – anagram (loose) of LET after BEE (another insect)
12 Plant weapon on source (9)
ARROWROOT – ARROW (weapon) on ROOT (source)
13 Fear Hard Right, caught between two alternatives (6)
HORROR – H(ard), and then R(ight) caught between OR and OR (two alternatives)
15 Measurement of 8 hours to begin with (6)
HEIGHT – EIGHT (8), H(ours) to begin with
18 Classify emotion when cycling (5)
RANGE – ANGER (emotion) “when cycling”.  This “cycling” clue type is cropping up more frequently – Jackkt has a very useful diagram to represent it, but if you imagine the letters A N G E R in a circle, then cycling round the circle you can make five different strings of letters: ANGER, NGERA, GERAN, ERANG, and of course RANGE.
20 Perhaps pet test is over (3)
TOM – MOT (car test) is over = is reversed. TOM as in a male cat.

136 comments on “Times Quick Cryptic No 2773 by Cheeko”

  1. 😩

    I guess Capability Brown is my David Letterman because I was like, ‘who would know the name of a landscaper?’. I googled, turns out Mr Brown is a little bit famous 😂

    Anyway I don’t know my places in London or types of butterflies – both are anagrams though so fair clues, my musical vocab is still poor and I couldn’t get the first clue even with all of the checkers for some reason.

    1. Capability Brown is a must know for UK quizzers and puzzle solvers, but its quite rare to use just his surname.

  2. Thanks Cheeko and rolytoly. The app version doesn’t let me see the setters name. I biffed repayment but couldn’t see how it worked! Hard Right between two alternatives should be ORHROR?

    1. Made slightly tougher when the name of the setter isn’t available when solving by phone. I’d no idea who cheeky was.

    2. Yes, same here, I solved on my phone today which doesn’t show the setter’s name. Totally foxed by cheeko until the penny finally dropped.

  3. 14:35. One Across took me by far the longest time because I could only see “Spat” as an argument and not as the form of the verb. REPAYMENT, HORROR, and OUTBRAG were favourites.

  4. A lot of animals and bugs and a few tough clues, 11.12 for me. I enjoyed this by Cheeko who has quite a distinctive voice which takes a bit of getting used to. The long anagrams mostly needed several checkers before yielding, and at 1ac STOMACH PUMPS I had to write the anagrist out to solve it which I rarely do in QCs. Balancing the tricky stuff were some absolute gimmes like HEART and HEIGHT. Thank you Roly, but I’m afraid your ruminations at 6ac PAN about can being half a camel (or something) went over my head.

    1. I figured that Roly means that an ‘M’ looks like two ‘N’s stuck together and ‘W’ is two ‘V’s. Such cluing is well beyond my abilities to spot.

      1. I’m sure that’s what was meant, although, while it works with ‘W’ and ‘V’, it doesn’t really work with ‘M’ and ‘N’. At least, not the way I write.

        On second thoughts, on account of the fact that I rarely handwrite anything nowadays, my handwriting is so untidy that this device could potentially be used for all manner of letter combinations!

  5. I had no idea what or who Cheeko was, and biffed REPAYMENT. Biffed STOMACH PUMPS & AMPHITHEATRE & UNDER THE TABLE, trusting that the anagrist was all there. Wasted some time on HOTEL thinking ‘popular’ was IN. Surprised myself by remembering ADMIRALTY ARCH; an infelicitous anagram in that ARCH is unchanged from anagrist to anagram. 7:57, WOE: I bunged in WEIGHT without properly reading the clue (to begin with).
    I don’t see how ‘can’ can be half of ‘canal’, and I can’t imagine it would show up in a Times puzzle. I don’t do the Guardian often, but I don’t recall any such clue there, either.

      1. None whatever; I wasn’t arguing against the clue, which is fine. But ‘can’ isn’t half of ‘canal’, it’s 60%.

    1. I clearly haven’t explained myself very clearly: I was trying to say that ‘can’ being half of ‘canal’ would be very loose, and as you say flat out incorrect. However, what if it was something like ‘cameo’ where splitting the ‘m’ in two would give ‘can’ and ‘neo’?It might work better with splitting W into V and V, which is what I was trying to get at with my “Bog in front half of lawns? (3)” example. I’ve definitely seen something like that before, but can’t remember where.

      1. I didn’t read you carefully, I’m afraid. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the W->V V here, but I think I might like it, if I got it.

      2. There was a clue in the 15×15 fairly recently which cryptically referred to the dots above the letter i to refer to the word “dots”, which seems of a similar vein to whats suggested here. I like the idea

        1. That’s very good, I must have either forgotten or missed that one – I also like that type of thing, along with punctuation being used somehow. Of course, such novelty things only really work by being a surprise, and could become stale quite quickly, like He for helium, etc.

  6. Cheeko clearly still doesn’t understand the QC brief.
    A lot here was a bit silly IMO, like ADMIRALTY ARCH, ORANGE TIP, STOMACH PUMPS (ridiculous definition IMO), and 17a has 2 completely valid solutions, only checkers can solve it

      1. It certainly could be taken either way, but it would be a clumsy surface if “raw” were the solution. I feel that the inclusion of “in” to facilitate that surface doesn’t help.

        1. More than clumsy I think Phil. The wordplay would be “to retreat in conflict” and I just can’t make that work.

    1. I agree, I really didn’t like this at all. Way too many anagrams and niche knowledge, plus using the setters name as a key part of the clue in 16ac when it isn’t shown on the website (on mobile at least) smacks of poor editing too.

    2. The debate about what “the QC brief” is, if indeed it has one, returns regularly to the blog. Is it a 15×15 intro course? Is it meant to be some shade of “easy” or “easier”and if so, my easy or yours? Maybe the new Editor in due course will issue a definitive statement.
      And then we can all debate why that is wrong too.
      Personally I just enjoy it, and mostly I can do it and occasionally I can’t, and the 15×15 I mostly can’t but occasionally can. And it doesn’t matter either way.

      1. Well said. Actually I think RR’s original statement is fine in that it makes it clear that at least on one level the QC is intended as a stepping stone to the main puzzle. That means there have to be easy ones, but in order for beginners to progress the level of difficulty or complexity has to vary. Easy every day would soon become boring anyway.

      2. Very well said Plymouthian. My thoughts exactly. It really doesn’t matter whether one can or can’t do a crossword. Finishing is a bonus but the enjoyment is surely in the challenge.

      3. 👍 that describes my ability with the QC and the 15×15 precisely. If I do it quickly, I’m pleased with myself. If I struggle, I usually end up learning some new wordplay. So it’s a win- win either way. 😁

  7. I think the setter’s name in a clue is a bit much. I seldom take note of the setter and as DramS says, it doesn’t appear in the app. I think ‘Give me money’ might have been better. Not a quickie in my view.

    1. Agree that it’s a bit sloppy when app users don’t have access to the setter’s name. And like you I never notice the setter’s name anyway unless I’m blogging.

      But it’s not unprecedented is it? Doesn’t Boatman regularly reference his moniker in the clues?

      On edit: Scratch that! Wrong paper!

  8. 11 minutes. I’d have achieved sub-10 had I not put RAW at 17ac before being forced by circumstances to change it to WAR. I’m open to correction but I think this is one occasion when either might be the answer if one takes the clue in isolation, but this is after all a crossword where fitting answers together to fill the grid is part of the skill of solving.

  9. 15:07. The setters name is not shown on my phone and I didn’t remember it (sorry Cheeko) so REPAYMENT went in with a shrug. And I took far too long with 11ac when I had ANT and TAR but just couldn’t see where the RED came from! Quite a devious one somehow

  10. Struggled mightily, slumped over and saw a pink square for wEIGHT – saw “to begin with” and whacked in the W. Capability Brown was responsible for the relatively local Stowe Landscape Gardens, so he went in quicker than Letterman did Tina! If it hadn’t been him I’d have been in a lot of trouble. Took a while to see UNDER THE TABLE was an anagram and worried about ‘carry the baton’ for a bit. RETARDANT was tremendous. Taken out to 20.25 but with the non-typo pink square.

  11. Spent a long time with pencil and paper on the long anagrams, particularly 1a where the crossers and remaining letters gave soups as possible for the second word 😧

    Finally home in 38.15 and with thanks to Roly for the parsing of range- had forgotten the cycling device.

    Capability Brown landscaped the grounds of Luton Hoo, including widening the river Lee into a couple of lakes, one of which was bequeathed to the 1st Luton Sea Scouts (yes really, even though Luton is about as far from the sea as you can get in the UK). I was a leader there in my early 20’s and kickstarted my love of dinghy sailing.

    Thanks Cheeko.

  12. 13.23 and four errors! I’ve never had four errors. I blame biffing. Bunged in CAN before getting 1ac which led to STOMACH PUNCH because it fitted and didn’t bother to check anagram. WEIGHT, like others. Decided the plant must be a WORT not a ROOT again without parsing. Salutary.

  13. Now where did I put that anagram hat? It was much in need today and I used up a lot more paper and ink than normal in my solve.
    Embarrassingly, I casually stuck ‘can’ in at 6d completely overlooking the fact that canal only contains 5 letters which caused me no end of problems with STOMACH PUMP.
    Despite my various struggles I enjoyed this puzzle finishing in a tardy 12.39 with COD to REG for the PDM.
    Thank to rolytoly

  14. Despite the flaws discussed earlier in the blog and responses, I quite enjoyed this. The reason for my LOI will be evident from the foregoing.

    At 2D I put my setter’s hat on and wondered whether ‘flightily’ might have been an interesting alternative as the anagram indicator.

    FOI ALARM
    LOI PAN
    COD STOMACH PUMPS *
    TIME 4:05

    * Cheeko could have been familiar with my late mother’s version of the culinary arts. If you couldn’t buy it canned, frozen, or ready-to-eat, you seldom saw it. My Dad wondered aloud one Sunday how a Yorkshirewoman could make a Yorkshire Pudding you could sole your shoes with. She never spoke to him again until Wednesday – and never made the dish ever again.

    1. I have to be careful here, because I’m married to a Yorkshire women, but was that the following Wednesday, or a more recent one? 😉

  15. Again got lucky with the long anagrams early on (seeing ‘arch’ in the clue for 3d made it a write-in). The rest followed steadily.

    Slowed by 11a – ‘RETARDing’, which doesn’t parse but fits the definition better (‘slowing down’). 15d was a PDM when I finally saw it, but I thought the ‘8’ in the clue pointed back to 8a, of which I could make nothing. (I think we even had a discussion here recently about numbers in clues referring to other clues?). Classify = RANGE was not obvious to me either.

    Challenging but enjoyable. Untimed but about 20 minutes.

    FOI ANDANTE
    LOI OUTBRAG after a desperate alphabet trawl
    COD ORANGE-TIP – one of those anagrams where the answer seems to contain more letters than the anagrist.

    *Thank you to everyone who congratulated me on my PB on Tuesday – I didn’t reply directly or the thread would get out of control, but I do appreciate it!

  16. I thought that that was very enjoyable and pretty tough. I finished in 11:54 for an OK Day by finally cracking STOMACH PUMPS and thus getting the much-needed first letter for PAN (had put in “can”, looked at it and taken it out again). Then I checked the Quitch – running at 128, which is high but not exceptionally high.

    If the powers that be read this blog, hopefully they will notice from multiple comments that the phone app still doesn’t show the setter’s name … which is a bit of a handicap when the name is part of the wordplay! I wasted time wondering whether Cheeko was an unknown Marx brother.

    Lots of wit on display but COD to RETARDANT from me, top clue. Many thanks Cheeko and roly.

  17. Oh, thought I had finished but failed on RANGE.
    Otherwise did OK. Fairly quick, once I got going with the anagrams.
    FOI STAIR. Liked HORSE, UNDER THE TABLE, HEARTS.
    Knew BROWN and ARROWROOT.
    Biffed REPAYMENT but failed to notice setter’s name so mystified by that one!
    But I enjoyed the puzzle – not too difficult, imo.
    Thanks, Roly.

  18. I think our blogger is right about the mini NINA. The four words around the large centre H can all be represented by the letter H ie HEARTS, HORSE, HOTEL and HEIGHT.

  19. Certainly less challenging than Cheeko’s last but that doesn’t say much and once again I found this tough and not one I warmed to. To clue all four very long clues as anagrams seems unbalanced, and there were a number of other clues that had my eyebrows quivering, among them REG for “number on estate”, RETARDANT where the logic of the surface would make RETARDing a better fit, RANGE for “classify”, and OUTBRAG, an ugly word unknown to both me and my spellchecker even if one can work out what it means easily enough when one has eventually found it.

    15 minutes, all green but with all four long anagrams needing pen and paper. Agree that using one’s own name in a clue is not the finest example of the setter’s art, especially as, as other have pointed out, half of those doing the puzzle won’t know who the setter is.

    Many thanks Roly for the blog
    Cedric

    1. REG for number, often with reference to a car or type of car is very common. I’d be surprised if this was it’s first outing in a QC.

      1. Mixed bag. Went to sleep between start and finish but DNF due to several typos and could not see setter name on phone so could not parse REPAYMENT, biffed.
        Struggled with long anagrams but liked STOMACH PUMPS.
        Thanks Roly and setter

        1. I’ve seen it before but maybe not in a Times crossword. I can’t really see any objection to it. The only rule or custom I know relating to numerals in clues is that cross-references to other clues have to be numerical.

            1. I thought it was unusual but Cheeko could hardly have put ‘eight’ which was about 90% of the answer. As I mentioned earlier, it was a gimme and barely cryptic. There was a terrific exception to the cross-ref rule recently when 22 was Catch – loved it!

  20. Narrowly escaped the SCC, finishing in 19:47.
    Needed paper and pen to unscramble 1a.
    Needed all the checkers to spot the ORANGE TIP. I regularly volunteer at a nature reserve where several of the other volunteers are butterfly enthusiasts, but the small blue is the one they get enthusiastic about.
    LOI was HORROR.

    Thanks Roly and Cheeko

  21. Just under 19m

    Better than last time, some nice clues, snitch showing at 129 which is still the highest since the last outing from Cheeko (159).

    Struggled with arrowroot, retardant, horror, repayment (COD) and LOI range.

  22. I found this quite hard taking 14:26.
    I also had no idea what Cheeko meant.
    I though 8 hours was a third of a day and hence the letter d, so the much simpler H-EIGHT was my LOI!
    Thanks for a good puzzle

  23. Tough but enjoyable but a DNF as I could not see REG – thanks to Roly it’s now blindingly obvious.
    Fell into the CAN trap for 3D but should have noticed that it was too easy and also wrong. This made 1a rather difficult.
    I like anagrams like ORANGE TIP where an innocent word like OPERATING reveals a whole new world within.

  24. STAIR was FOI. The bottom half took much longer than the top half. ARROWROOT was POI and LOI RANGE. I struggle to see RANGE =CLASSIFY, although I can see the cycling of anger, so that went in from wordplay. 13:31. Thanks Cheeko and Roly.

  25. 7:50 and definitely at the tough end of the Quickie spectrum.

    Nicely clued though I thought, particularly the anagrams for ADMIRALTY ARCH and ORANGE-TIP. Nothing more satisfying than entering unknown (to me) answers with full confidence, after a bit of unravelling.

    Thanks Cheeko and excellent blog Roly. Respect to anybody that can spot a Nina.

  26. Safely but slowly into the SCC, with several trips and stumbles along the way. Pondered RAW/WAR before choosing the wrong option initially. I had already forgotten the cycling thing but hopefully will now remember it – the Rage element let me bung in the answer anyway.
    I also forget that musical terms often equate with speed clues. I’m not musical so maybe I need a crash course.
    I do the QC on iPad so anagrams I work out in my head. The four long clues were clearly anagrams, but took a bit of mental wrangling before they slotted into place.
    OUTBRAG was a new word to me, but fairly clued, and with a few crossers it made sense.
    Thanks for the blog clearing up a few “er…” parsing queries.

  27. I really struggled with this one from Cheeko finishing in 18.38. I was thinking of requesting the code for entry to the SCC club at one point. I really struggled with the long anagrams, and misspelling AMPHITHEATRE without the first H didn’t help, as I suddenly discovered an empty square at the end of the answer. My biggest problem was with my LOI which was RANGE. I thought of RANGE as a word that would fit the checkers soon enough, but couldn’t parse it. I then embarked on a time consuming alphabet trawl to see if there was an alternative. In the end it went in with fingers crossed.

  28. I’m waiting in for a delivery, otherwise I would have pulled stumps after 30mins – the novelty of ‘cycling’ round my last few clues having worn completely away by then (Range was loi).
    When I first started doing these things, someone advised that the sense of the anagrist should always be completely ignored. Good advice, but there is always an exception to a rule and Cheeko made use of it today. Stomach Pumps then prompted Admiralty Arch (much muttering under breath about the use of obscure London areas, only to find, somewhat embarrassingly, that it was a building I’ve been inside more than once), Amphitheatre and finally the aforementioned Range for a 45min solve.
    Retardant deserves CoD, but Repayment gets it for the pdm. Invariant

    PS my anagram hat must have wandered off (again), please return if found. Quite old, but in nearly new condition; hisses when approached with pen and paper

  29. A slow start getting used to a new setter’s style-or so I thought; I’d forgotten his previous appearance.
    And I then forgot his name biffing REPAYMENT and, like others, thinking of Chico Marx, spelt incorrectly.
    Was nearly done in 11 minutes but needed time to unravel three: RAW was my first thought, but then I saw RANGE with a sigh -not the best clue; LOI ARROWROOT.
    Finished in 16 minutes.
    And now I see I had an error; put WEIGHT at 15d- I did wonder about the device “to begin With” to clue W. I should have read the clue more carefully.
    I liked HORROR and HORSE.
    David

  30. To quote simjt above, “Narrowly escaped the SCC, finishing in 19:47”. Given the other times and comments on here, I’m quite pleased with that though. Didn’t manage to parse RANGE and I’m still not sure how it means classify, but nothing else seemed to fit the checkers except rinse. COD to RETARDANT. Liked the Nina, though I’d never have spotted it. Thanks Cheeko and Roly.

  31. I don’t do the QC (or indeed any crossword) every day – just a fair smattering – but this is without doubt one of the very hardest QCs I have done. I was pleased to get it completed! My approach to anagrams is to write out the anagrist backwards – it often works straight away, but none of them did this morning! I thought it might be just an off day for me, but the thrust of other comments suggest this was ‘objectively’ a difficult one. Only the size made it a QC! COD – HORROR (HEARTS a close second). Grateful thanks from a fried brain.

    1. I tried your techique today on a clue in the biggie and I saw the anagram immediately – so many thanks! I hope this wasn’t a one off 😅

      1. Thanks PennyB! Overall – and without having done a full study – I reckon it works about one time in three. But zero out of four long ones today! Of course, the setters not infrequently fox you into getting the anagrist wholly or partially wrong, or making you think it’s an anagram when it isn’t !

  32. Very much enjoyed this one, at 18 mins fully parsed and despite several minutes wondering what ‘cheeko’ meant. No excuses, I do the paper version and it was staring at me all the time.
    Thanks Roly for the blog, interesting as always. I enjoyed your musing on ‘m’ and ‘w’ being split into ‘n n’ and ‘v v’.
    Prof

  33. A long time taken but an ultimately satisfying solve. I like the fact that there is a spectrum of difficulty. There’s no learning and hence no progress without the odd tricky construction or new word. I invariably write out the anagrist as I can’t manipulate letters in my head. Even so ADMIRALTY ARCH and STOMACH PUMPS held out for a surprisingly long time. I liked RETARDANT which was biffed (thanks roly) and PAN because it reminded me to think outside the QC box a little. Many thanks Cheeko and roly.

  34. I found this not only very hard but it didn’t have a “simpatico” vibe. I realize I’m a solver with a somewhat emotional response to the setter but I found this one harsh & “clever-clever.”

  35. Well done Cheeko, keep ’em coming. A bit of chin music toughens up a batter. No fun smashing long hops and half volleys to all parts.

    PAN LOI after STOMACH PUMPS removed the C of CAN.

    Some cracking long anagrams.

    8:11

  36. I really struggled with Cheeko’s first so was wary when I started. But v pleased to get through in around 15 minutes. Needed pencil and paper to help with the butterfly and the stomach pumps – and left Raw for a bit in case it was War. I liked that some of the harder clues could be worked out and COD was Horror once I had crossers to help.

  37. Well, a report in the paper earlier this week said that a daily croissant isn’t very good for you, but I wonder if there’s a seat for me in the SCC (maybe at the back) where I can have one with a cafe au lait today? Just realised I won’t be allowed entry – I got one wrong!
    Although this was slow, I enjoyed it – definitely a bit more user friendly that the inaugural Cheeko puzzle. There were some cracking anagrams and some very witty clues.
    I recognised the newly popular cycling clue-type, but had to find the correct synonym before I could start going round in circles! Isn’t this a bit like an anagram at once removed, where you have to find another word before you can manipulate it? Which, I believe, is verboten around here.
    But overall, there were lots of ticks and smiles – Cheeko is definitely a bit cheeky 😉 I really liked REPAYMENT, HORSE, AMPHITHEATRE and ORANGE TIP. We get lots of them in our garden.
    For once I match Phil, but only in terms of my FOI, LOI and COD 😅
    FOI Alarm LOI Pan (I knew it couldn’t be CAN!) COD Stomach pumps
    23.33 but with WEIGHT instead of HEIGHT
    Thanks Cheeko and Roly for an excellent blog. If I’d seen the nina, I might have got 15d right – but I rarely do!

      1. I was just thinking about you – we’re trying (and not succeeding with) today’s NYT connections! Can’t even get started 😅

        1. Yes, it’s very very slangy today, plus American football. I don’t know that I would attempt its British equivalent!

          1. I got three of those but the one that got away I would associate more with a car problem 😅 And no chance with the sport! I threw in the towel after about 10 minutes – have got to make some jam now before the blackberries go off.

  38. Another DNF. pretty hard puzzle but that is to be expected from time to time. I do take issue with stomach pumps which even after the bloggers explanation I don’t understand. Sorry but I think it is a rubbish clue and a meaningless answer. At least as far as I can see have tried to google any meaning to it and have come up empty.

    1. A stomach pump is a medical procedure to remove anything dangerous to health (often an excess of alcohol/other drug of choice). It involves the insertion of a tube. . .that’s probably enough detail 😉

      1. Thanks I realise what a stomach pump is, but could not see how the clue helped you arrive at that and gave any help with the anagram. Hence my comment a rubbish clue.
        No need for these could be almost anything and having nothing to help with a 13 letter anagram makes it a nonsense. But then again I am relatively new to crosswords but with my limited experience this rates as one of the worst clues I have come across. I am full of admiration for those that got it

        1. OK, but if you spat out the funny tasting chop that mum cooked, you would have no subsequent need for a stomach pump, no ?
          I have no control over the quality of the clues, by the way, just trying to help. ☺

    2. I just love the QC as part of my morning. Being nearer to 90 than 80 I have no urge to run anywhere and no urge to rush through a crossword. Time is not at a premium and for me anything under 20 minutes is a triumph. Today I finished despite all the traps along the way. That is a cause for celebration – and most of a morning well spent!

  39. I was horrified to see Cheeko’s name above the grid, but it appears s/he has attended the first day of the QC Setters’ training course. I still found it very tough, but it was do-able …. just. 42 minutes for me.

    The first 10 clues I tried went completely over my head, so I was mighty pleased to break my duck BROWN, AMPHITHEATRE and STAIR in succession. STOMACH PUMPS was excellent, but OUTBRAG was just too contrived IMHO. My LOI was RANGE, where I’d found the answer some minutes before managing to parse it.

    Thanks to Cheeko and Roly.

  40. I try to be positive but I didn’t enjoy this one -only giving it one 😀 and lots of !!! I really could not see the humour in it.

    For some time, I was caught out with CAN and RAW. Managed to work out ANDANTE.

    Finished with the aid of The Gentleman who knows his butterflies. I unfortunately I thought the second word was TOP so couldn’t then work out the anagram.

    Never mind you can’t win ‘em all.

    Thanks anyway Cheeko and Roly

  41. We should have had this finished in about our average time of around 13 minutes or so but wasted far too much time trying to make sense of 1a until we finally revisited ‘CAN’, despite having had misgivings on entering it. To compound our embarrassment we’d also put in RAW at first, though we corrected that pretty quickly when 18d wouldn’t work. ORANGE-TIP was also too slow to go in despite it being my favourite butterfly! At least we just biffed REPAYMENT with a shrug and didn’t spend time on the significance of an alternatively spelled Marx! 16:43 in the end. Thanks to Cheeko and Roly.

  42. I struggled with this one and would have been deep in the SCC but ended as a DNF instead. WEIGHT was my 15d because of the ‘begin with’ ending to the clue: it had to begin with W, I thought. Hah, just a clumsy ending of a sentence with a preposition. The long anagrams were fine but OUTBRAG seems contrived. Bit of a mix, not many chuckles, but thanks all the same Cheeko and Roly – I found the blog v helpful!

  43. Another slow day with mixed enjoyment and feelings of “meh”. Fortunately I’m off my phone so didn’t have the “what the heck is Cheeko” problem! A couple of NHOs (ADMIRALTY ARCH and ORANGE TIP). I had to give up on my resolution to do anagrams without writing down the anagrist, as only UNDER THE TABLE came to me. Much respect to all those who did them in their heads! STOMACH PUMPS and its clue made me queasy. Loved Romeo in tights, and “operating” is such good anagram fodder, who woulda thought! Do not like the all-too-common device of making the answer hard to find by simply choosing one of the most unlikely possible meanings for its definition (looking at you, 18D RANGE). A poor excuse for actual wit, is my feeling. Ooooh I am whiny today. If I were to try setting these, I bet that would shut me up quick!

    Thanks Cheeko, don’t take the whining seriously. Thanks rolytoly, and I await with trepidation the half-letter clue you suggest.

  44. I fell into the same traps as others with CAN (yes I know it was more than half!) and RAW. The only long answer I was able to solve on a first reading of the clue was AMPHITHEATRE. STOMACH PUMPS needed all but one of the checkers. NHO of the ORANGE-TIP but certainly gettable and couldn’t see how RANGE worked so hesitantly put it in last. 12:18

  45. All done in 18:53, after dutifully falling into all of the traps mentioned by others: CAN, RAW, the Marx brother. But happy to have finished, and to have got three of the four long anagrams in my head.

    COD to REPAYMENT, once I figured out what was going on.

    Thanks to Cheeko and rolytoly.

Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *