Solving time: 6:38
Not too many difficulties with this midweek grid from the Joker, which comes with plenty of ‘Insert this/Remove that/IKEA’-style clues and surprisingly few anagrams (3), double definitions (2) and hiddens (1). There are also three clues where the wordplay is mildly cryptic.
I had to guess 7a as the parsing didn’t leap out at me until post-completion but otherwise I would suggest that this is a very accessible puzzle which may (or may not 🙂 ) see some pleasing finishing times (get down from that fence, Michael!)
I look forward to reading how you all got on.
On another matter, I was interested to look at the Trends page on the Quick Snitch website (https://quick.xwdsnitch.link/solving_averages). What particularly caught my eye was that even though the number of reference solvers has doubled over the last fourteen months, and the average time for completion has increased overall, the difficulty of the QC hasn’t really changed that much over the same period, whatever our perception may be. Thoughts welcome….
| Across | |
| 4 | Bishop managed church office locally (6) |
| BRANCH – B (Bishop) RAN (managed) CH (church) | |
| 7 | You once brought inside garden watering pipe — here? (8) |
| HOTHOUSE – THOU (You once) inside HOSE (garden watering pipe)
Why does the definition ‘here?’ = HOTHOUSE? It is one place where one might use a garden watering pipe (very long-winded definition for HOSE). My LOI which I failed to parse in flight. With all checkers in place, I could see HOSE with a U in it starting from the fourth letter, but was looking at the wrong H and a modern ‘You/U’ rather than an old-fashioned ‘THOU’… |
|
| 8 | It is over where boxers appear to be running out of energy (6) |
| TIRING – IT reversed [is over] gives TI, then RING (where boxers appear) | |
| 9 | Be prominent and covered in fat? (5,3) |
| STAND OUT – AND covered in STOUT (fat) | |
| 10 | Milk pudding needs gas ring cooking (4) |
| SAGO – Anagram [cooking] of GAS O (ring)
SAGO pudding is a creamy dessert made by boiling or baking milk (or water) and other flavourings such as sugar or syrup, with SAGO pearls, which are extracted from the spongy centre of tropical palm stems. |
|
| 12 | One that can be let off employment after sack (8) |
| FIREWORK – WORK (employment) after FIRE (sack) | |
| 15 | Home cared for fiancé (8) |
| INTENDED – IN (Home) TENDED (cared for) | |
| 18 | Word for time spent at school (4) |
| TERM – Double definition – for the first definition TERM is a ‘Word for (something)’ or as one online dictionary describes it, “a word or phrase used to describe a thing or to express a concept“ | |
| 20 | Attraction at Greenwich? Intend to go round free one (8) |
| MERIDIAN – MEAN (Intend) to go round RID (free) I (one)
Between 1884 and 1974, the Greenwich Meridian was officially the international standard prime Meridian, enabling all timekeepers and shipping worldwide to sing from the same hymnsheet as far as global positioning was concerned – Before that, many countries relied on their own MERIDIAN (usually passing through their own country). As the marking strip of the Greenwich Meridian was actually 5.3 seconds west of 0°0′0″, the modern standard for global positioning at 0° longitude is now snappily called the IERS Reference Meridian (IRM) and is maintained by the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service (IERS). |
|
| 22 | Problem in a gem being reset (6) |
| ENIGMA – Anagram [being reset] of IN A GEM
ENIGMA comes from the Latin “aenigma” which in turn is derived from the Ancient Greek verbal noun αἴνιγμα (aínigma, “dark saying, speaking in riddles”). |
|
| 23 | One new position for illustration (8) |
| INSTANCE – I (One) N (new) STANCE (position) | |
| 24 | Continue nursing fibrous tissue (6) |
| TENDON – TEND ON (Continue nursing) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Fur ball seemingly swallowed by moggy (4) |
| COAT – O (ball seemingly) inserted into [swallowed by] CAT (moggy)
“seemingly” seems somewhat superfluous. Could not the clue simply have read “Fur ball swallowed by moggy”? |
|
| 2 | Ben on his broken tibia (8) |
| SHINBONE – Anagram [broken] of BEN ON HIS | |
| 3 | Stop to put in end part of sleeve (3,3) |
| CUT OFF – TO put in CUFF (end part of sleeve) | |
| 4 | Who places wager with more success (6) |
| BETTER – Double definition | |
| 5 | Distinctive quality of gold shown by artist (4) |
| AURA – AU (gold – chemical symbol) shown by RA (artist – Royal Academician) | |
| 6 | Trickster to fool member of judge’s panel (8) |
| CONJUROR – CON (fool) JUROR (member of judge’s panel) | |
| 11 | Report girl above weight (8) |
| ANNOUNCE – ANN (girl) OUNCE (weight)
‘above’ is apposite as this is a down clue |
|
| 13 | What comes in cubes cut up, topped and tailed (3) |
| ICE – |
|
| 14 | Recall how many football matches end? (8) |
| WITHDRAW – Some football matches end WITH DRAW i.e. both teams have scored the same number of goals
The definition is in the sense of recalling/WITHDRAWing faulty goods from the market, or of recalling/WITHDRAWing troops from the front line. There is also an archaic definition of “revoke or annul (an action or decision)”. Over the last ten English Premier League seasons, approximately 23% of matches have ended in a draw i.e. around 874 of 3800 matches. |
|
| 16 | Commit matricide in field? (6) |
| DOMAIN – DO MA IN (Commit matricide) – a chestnut | |
| 17 | Force put on clothes covering uniform (6) |
| DURESS – DRESS (put on clothes) covering U (uniform – NATO phonetic alphabet) | |
| 19 | Old kept in, avoiding cold (4) |
| AGED – |
|
| 21 | Structure employed in perpendicular churches (4) |
| ARCH – Hidden [employed in] in perpendicular churches | |
12:44, for a fairly regulation solve. Remembered laughing at DOMAIN last time it came up, so that went straight in. My last 2 minutes were spent trawling for TENDON.
Thanks to Mike and Joker.
7.14 I thought I was heading for a very fast time but MERIDIAN, ANNOUNCE, CUT OFF and HOTHOUSE slowed me down at the end. Thanks Mike and Joker.
P.S. I was idly wondering what other places lay on the meridian and a web search led me to a geography-oriented site, which confidently states:
“While Greenwich is the most well-known city along the prime meridian, other cities, such as Madrid, Naples, Istanbul, Beijing, and New York, lie on the same line of longitude.”
I’m not looking forward to the government fixing our public services with AI.
HOTHOUSE caused me no end of problems. I expect that most of you will know that the Ouse is a river, but some might not know that Hoth is a planet in the Star Wars universe. Took me a while to see the connection (namely, that there wasn’t one). Took ages to parse CUT OFF, too. Anyway, 16:58.
As a relative novice to these things, I suspect that we may struggle more with this one because of definitions like “One that can be let off” or “What comes in cubes”, which will be no problem for you lot but would have stumped me a year ago. I think it’s one of those areas where once a thing becomes second nature, it’s easy to forget how tricky it used to be. And on a related point, I think it’s things like this which partly account for the frequent chasm between “This one was nice and straightforward” in the preamble and “No it bloody wasn’t” in the comments.
Thank you for the blog!
25 ish min finish and parsed all. Pleased I preserved with my LOI’s: Instance and Conjuror. Laughed at Domain. Thanks Joker and Mike
I’m ready to throw in the towel.
DNF in 35 minutes. Took ages to get TENDON and then failed to get ANNOUNCE. Put ANNTONNE! Totally clueless.
103 minutes this week and 2 DNFs. And you wonder why I’m always unhappy?
Before I explode in a fit of despair and rage, will someone tell me:
1. Why I can’t do this to anything approaching a respectable level – what do I lack that you all have? There is a secret to this but no-one will let me in to it.
2. Why I have got steadily worse since attempting the big crossword (something which is irrational),and
3. Whether there is seriously any point in carrying on.
My only function here seems to be as the resident idiot, and that is not a role I enjoy.
I am so fed up with this that I cannot bring myself to look at any other comments. I’m sure most of you, like the blogger, found this a walk in the park.
PS Made the mistake of looking at the other comments. Solvers who were once at my level are now breaking the 10 minute barrier. I despair 😞
PPS Got majority of clues in proper crossword, but missed some easy ones. Should have completed this. A bad, bad day!
PPPS My request for advice/help was genuine. I’m really struggling with this at the moment.
9:13
Just adding that again to test if it didn’t pick up on Quitch because I’d posted as a reply to CurryOwen
Seems to have done the trick!
Great time!!! Well done.
Couldn’t get ‘hot’ in hothouse