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:
| 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. | |
This resident of the SCC found this tough but fun. Thanks Cheeko (and blogger!).
I knew most of the GK (except ORANGE TIP which came from the anagram).
And following the discussion above, having harder QC’s is surely necessary so folks like me can see (If!) they’ve progressed.
11.08
Tough. Another CAN for ages though it didn’t feel right.
I tend to like a harder one though agree that four long anagrams was a bit unbalanced and that RANGE for classify certainly feels like a big stretch
I got on with this one really well, seemed to be on the right wavelength. Spotted the long anagrams at first pass which helped and remembered about ‘cycle’ from previous explanation. Seen many Orange Tip butterflies this year.
Thanks Cheeko and Rolytoly
I think that perhaps Cheeko and I are not so much on different wavelengths as on different spectrums (spectra?) entirely. All done in 28:46, and I was somewhat surprised to finish at all. Very tricky one for me, and a wide range in individual clue difficulties too.
Thank you for the blog!
13.26 DNF. This was tough but doable except that I biffed LENGTH at 15d and forgot to check it, even when AMPHITHEATRE gave me LENGTT. Gah! LOI PAN was unparsed. It was enjoyable though. Thanks rolytoly and Cheeko.
Took some time, but a limoncello helped to get there in the end. STOMACH PUMPS was really taxing. Exhausted.
20 mins so longer than usual, but I enjoyed having a tougher challenge. Good to have anagrams which aren’t immediately obvious. Where else could you possibly find Stomach Pumps and Amphitheatre on the same page.
Didn’t see the author (he was there, just didn’t look) so I guess that just means it’s a part of the puzzle that I need to clock before starting off. Thought War fit the clue far better than Raw, so no problem with that.
Thanks to Cheeko and rolytoly
29:37
Down to earth after a run of sub 15s. This was tough and nearly gave up on the SW corner, HEIGHT, OUTBRAG and LOI TOM all causing problems.
9:28
Thoroughly enjoyed, didn’t know it was Cheeko as completed on phone (and didn’t remember from their inaugural grid) which is probably just as well. Funnily enough, I visited the sixth largest 22a in the world today.
Thanks Cheeko and Roly
28 mins…
I did another sharp intake of breath when I saw the name; but, whilst this was still on the harder side, it was definitely more manageable than Cheeko’s debut (which still sends shivers down my spine). In fact, I thought there were some great clues overall: 10ac “Reg”, 16ac “Repayment” and 14ac “Horse” all brought a smile. I still need to learn how to spell “Amphitheatre” though and I wasn’t 100% sure on the parsing of 18dn “Range”, so thanks for the explanation.
FOI – 8ac “Alarm”
LOI – 18dn “Range”
COD – 1ac “Stomach Pumps” – brought back some hideous memories of childhood meals.
Thanks as usual!
I took 35 mins for the first 3 QCs this week and, just for once, felt positive.
This QC totally destroyed my confidence and has left me feeling humiliated, depressed and utterly without hope.
DNF after an hour and three minutes of sheer hell.
Couldn’t get HEIGHT or OUTBRAG.
Still, you can all have a laugh at how ignorant I am and how stupid I was to ever think I could be any good at cryptic crossword.
Not sure I’ll be back as I’m sick of being so bad at this. All that time spent on the big crossword and I am still the most incompetent solver here! What’s the point? I can’t solve long anagrams and, judging by today, my spelling is not what it should be.
☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️
Quick Snitch had this as Harder, https://quick.xwdsnitch.link/crosswords.
That’s based off experienced solver’s times. I think for mere mortals like you and I, we could comfortably put this down as Very Hard. Fortunately most QCs are not up at this difficulty rating. Keep the faith.
Late solve, and a bad one. I didn’t understand the Cheeko device, and went with COPAYMENT, which led to a force-fit of HECTOR.
I’m on Eastern US time this week, and all the seats in the SCC have long been taken.
Is range a synonym for classify? Isn’t one a noun and one a verb? Must be missing something.
Chambers, transitive verb, 1st meaning, part 3, “to classify”. I agree it does seem like old usage now, not heard anyone use the word like that.
Like others I found this quite tough, finished over three visits, probably took 45-60 minutes which a quite slow for me. Don’t know what the eventual time was as the timer keeps going even when you are not looking at it. Bug? Maybe…
Dreadful bugs with most of the Times puzzle software – iPad, website and phone apps all different UI/UX and all have their quirks. Probably spent over 5 minutes alone wondering what the hell Cheeko could mean, with it impossible to know on the phone app as it is not displayed.
As someone who hopes for an easier cryptic, from its title, I often try this one, but honestly this one was too hard for me and some of the clues are less than satisfactory. Since when is range a synonym for classify? Maybe my vocabulary is lacking , or maybe you just have to get into the devious mind of the setter.
Classify = range is in Chambers, 1st meaning. I can’t actually think of a sample sentence with the word used like this, so it must be rare or old.