Similar difficulty to yesterday, I found. Edit: Completely different difficulty to yesterday.
At 8:31, I was pretty much the same time as yesterday, so clearly my calibration is way off – it must be all messed up by those two Double-DNFs earlier in the week. Anyway, today I was too quick to discount the existence of a word beginning BEW- at 14ac, too slow to untangle the various bits of TANGLED, and nor could I rearrange SEFROT in my head into something that could plausibly go on the end of SAVANNAH-.
Other bits were reluctant to yield as well, despite a number of every-other-letter clues and anagrams, and given quite a stiff Quitch I can now see why. Some very neat clues along the way, with SLIP, AFT, SWIMSUIT and SUNK being my favourites – many thanks to Cheeko!
| Across | |
| 1 | Steal underwear (4) |
| SLIP – double definition, the first as in to move quietly. I like it! (The clue, not the activity) | |
| 3 | Sid about to stop bonkers folk who seek exposure? (7) |
| NUDISTS – SID reversed (“about”) in NUTS (bonkers) | |
| 8 | In it, anarchist destroyed critic of religion (13) |
| ANTICHRISTIAN – anagram (destroyed) of IN IT ANARCHIST | |
| 9 | Superpower from Russia viewed evenly (3) |
| USA – from the “even” letters of r U s S i A | |
| 10 | Approach game with reversed wordplay (3-2) |
| RUN-UP – RU (Rugby Union = game) with a “reversed” PUN (wordplay) | |
| 12 | Sleep in intermittently and secure free time (7) |
| LEISURE – s L e E p I n “intermittently” and SURE (secure) | |
| 14 | Network backing urgent desire for charm (7) |
| BEWITCH – WEB (network) “backing”, ITCH (urgent desire) | |
| 16 | Free relative forgoes introduction (5) |
| UNTIE – aUNTIE (relative) forgoes its introduction | |
| 17 | Terribly fat behind (3) |
| AFT – anagram (terribly) of FAT | |
| 20 | Empty Sherpa van by seafront abandoned in parklands (7-6) |
| SAVANNA-FOREST – “empty” S |
|
| 21 | Spoil line and get knotted (7) |
| TANGLED – anagram (spoil) of L(ine) AND GET | |
| 22 | Reportedly, yours and my time (4) |
| HOUR – sounds the same as OUR (yours and my) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Doctor parries bishop, a bit of a pig? (5,3) |
| SPARE RIB – anagram (doctor) of PARRIES B(ishop) | |
| 2 | Keen on badminton, to some extent (4) |
| INTO – badmINTOn “to some extent” | |
| 3 | Typical Royal Marines in Angola regularly left (6) |
| NORMAL – RM (Royal Marines) in a N g O L A “regularly”, L(eft) | |
| 4 | Division of stupid idiots burn it (12) |
| DISTRIBUTION -anagram (stupid) of IDIOTS BURN IT | |
| 5 | Habit associated with crawling, maybe? (8) |
| SWIMSUIT – nice cryptic definition, with a play on a habit being clothing, and a crawl being a stroke in swimming. | |
| 6 | Former PM, having no answer, ruined (4) |
| SUNK – SUNaK (former PM) having no A(nswer). Lovely clue, showing how the new living people rule can be used non-irritatingly. | |
| 7 | Job-related invasion extremely awful (12) |
| OCCUPATIONAL – OCCUPATION (invasion) AL (“extremely” AwfuL) | |
| 11 | Port served by modern refuge (8) |
| NEWHAVEN – NEW (modern) HAVEN (refuge) | |
| 13 | Lift European tax, in part held up (8) |
| ELEVATOR – E(uropean) VAT (tax) in ROLE (part) reversed (“held up”) | |
| 15 | Zulu area in severe danger (6) |
| HAZARD – Z(ulu) A(rea) in HARD (severe) | |
| 18 | Insanity, oddly enough, is not minimised (4) |
| ISNT – I n S a N i T y with the “odd” letters being “enough” | |
| 19 | Unknown champ goes topless for nothing (4) |
| ZERO – Z (unknown, in maths) hERO (champ) goes “topless” | |
13:34. I liked HAZARD and ISN’T the most. Not seeing “abandoned” as an anagram indicator made SAVANNA-FOREST hard to parse.
Unlike Roly I found this effort by Cheeko much harder than yesterday’s: 12.57 v 5.55. But it was no less enjoyable for that and retrospectively I had a number of woulda-coulda-shoulda moments. I was held up far too long by SPARE RIB, the forest, HOUR and LOI SWIMSUIT, among others. Thanks to both.
You guys, somehow, some way, I missed the fact that rishi sunak is no longer the PM. I’ve never even heard of the new guy.
I will forever now shut up about how people can have popular culture pass them by.
Not your country to be fair, Tina!
Also in my defence when it happened I was in hospital and preparing for an intense job promotion interview and my workplace had imploded.
However feels weird I didn’t hear about it after
I’m not sure one could describe UK politics as either popular or cultured, but I get your point.
I found that much harder than yesterdays taking exactly 18 minutes! NHO SAVANNA FOREST. LOI was SWIMSUIT.
Another not-too difficult one, although I found savanna forest and antichristian rather odd – not really the sort of answers one expects to find in a Quickie. An invasion and an occupation are not exactly the same thing either, although close. The New Haven near me is two words, but the town of Newhaven in the UK is one, fair enough.
Time: 8:01
Also seems odd for a QC: SAVANNA-FOREST is not in Collins or Dictionary.com but it is found in Chambers.
NHO SAVANNA FOREST but managed to see the wordplay and anagram. Didn’t see SWIMSUIT as a habit and would have thought crawl instead of crawling might have helped. SPARE RIB was a write-in. Some tricky stuff suited more to the 15×15. COD to HOUR.
Thanks blogger and setter.
17 minutes.
Not easy. I took forever to come up with SLIP at 1ac, SWIMSUIT and the NHO SAVANNA FOREST.
Cheeko has given us one puzzle per month since his (?) first in August which took me 16 minutes. September seemed a little easier and I needed 11 minutes for that one.
I’ve never heard of a SAVANNA FOREST – I was wondering while solving if you could clue “cat monkey” as ‘animals’. The internet doesn’t seem to have many references to them, getting close only with the savanna forest mosaic. Also lost time trying to anagram (division of) ‘stupid idiots’ to find a fuel. A solid seven on the first pass but then a crawl to finish with SLIP. Enjoyed lots here – SUNK, BEWITCHED (bew seemed very unpromising when I first considered it) and ISNT in particular. All green in 19.05 – so much harder for me than yesterday.
I agree with you and had a very similar experience.
I am debating whether to add Savanna-Forest to the Cheating Machine on the grounds of “Green Paint” which is a Times Blog no-no (it is in the list of terms used on this site). I only want to fill up the CM with stuff that other setters might use. Ho hum.
6:49. On the hard side. NHO SAVANNA-FOREST, but it had to be. Held up at the end by SLIP and SWIMSUIT, my LOI. I liked USA and AFT for the surfaces. Thanks Cheeko and Roly.
For the most part this didn’t feel harder until I looked at the clock with 3 to go and saw we were already at 26 minutes. We got quite a few on first reading but they took some untangling.
LOI swimsuit biffed amazingly by Mrs RH after we had gone to the thesaurus for habit and crawling without any joy.
Thanks Cheeko, and Roly for the parsing of run up. Must try to lodge game=ru firmly somewhere!
14½ minutes, my fastest solve of a puzzle by Cheeko, so either I am getting more familiar with his style or he is adjusting to the level of QCs a bit more after his early outings. I suspect a bit of both, as this had some nicely approachable clues but also a few real headscratchers. I’m another who had not heard of SAVANNA-FOREST as a phrase, or ANTICHRISTIAN as a word, but they both had to be.
I had more trouble over SLIP, where faced with S-I- I tossed up between SNIP (means a steal but not underwear) and SLIP (means underwear but for a long time I could not make it mean steal). Eventually the penny dropped and SLIP went in.
A question – why is USA not shown as (1,1,1)? Unlike some initials (eg NATO) it is never pronounced as one word, ie yooza, and never written in anything but capitals.
Many thanks Roly for the blog
Cedric
The style seems to be to drop all periods now. The I.T. Industry would grind to a halt if we had to stick them in.
Oh dear, I think my brain has gone on strike this week.
This was at the trickier end of the spectrum but I made harder work of it than I should have done – a complete inability to count odd letters for LOI ISNT and forgetting all about our most recent ex-PM (even with all the checkers in place) being prime examples.
Collapsed over the line in 16.37.
Thanks to rolytoly
24:33
That was tough and yet, unlike Breadman’s Tuesday puzzle which I quit, I always felt like it was going to be finishable. Fastest Cheeko so far the previous two being 27 and 30mins.
Never understood ELEVATOR as thought “tax in part” was the LEV(Y) – so thanks to Roly for sorting that out.
Really enjoyed the SUNK clue 👍 fortunately decided to go PM trawl from most recent to … well I didn’t need to go any further!
Another stiff work-out, they keep coming! This is the currently the highest QUITCH (133 as I type) since Asp’s infamous QC2726 scored a record 150 in July.
In the circumstances I am therefore delighted with 09:44. Held up on the ones identified by others, especially LOI SUNK, but just about managed to keep going.
COD to the fat bottom. Yes I am childish.
Very funny introduction to the blog, roly – many thanks to you and Cheeko.
11:06
NHO SAVANNA-FOREST, but it was the only thing that fitted the anagram.
LOI was SWIMSUIT.
Thanks Roly and Cheeko
Chewy, clever, well into the SCC by the time that SWIMSUIT went in. SUNK took some time as I ran through PMs from the oldest I could remember, which seemed entirely logical, but proved to be a bad strategy! Poor Rishi didn’t spring to mind when I read it initially. Neat clue. SPARE RIB took me a while and then I was more confident about SLIP, not having remembered that meaning of steal.
The long clues were all fairly gettable early on which gave me a useful skeleton to work on.
I somewhat envy Tina’s blissful ignorance of recent British political events…
14:31
Found it tricky, LOI SLIP where lots of slang seemed to fit one definition or the other.
How can a savanna have a forest? I thought they were grasslands? That would be like a meadow-wood.
My AI assistant advises: While the core definition of a savanna emphasizes grasslands with scattered trees, there are some regions where the tree density is higher, creating a more forest-like appearance. In these areas, the term “savanna forest” is sometimes used. Essentially, a savanna forest is a transitional zone between a savanna and a forest, combining elements of both ecosystems. The exact characteristics and terminology can vary depending on the specific region and local ecological conditions.
Taking of AI, my friend Ross gave up on today’s puzzle in a little under 4 minutes with 5 clues unsolved (surprisingly including ZERO). However, he made relatively light work of SAVANNA FOREST.
DNF disaster.
Barely avoided the SCC (excuse the nudist pun)
I’m not a NINA expert but anything going on with coupled words… normal distribution…slip into…occupational hazard…etc?
thanks Cheeko and Roly
There is also ZERO HOUR in the SE corner. Good spot TC
Thanks Mike! I am usually the last person to spot a NINA (is this a NINA even?) First time for everything I guess.
….zero hour, tangled web, and there’s nudists = untie swimsuit…
Maybe Cheeko was trolling us with SAVANNA ISN’T FOREST
so there is!
Oooh well-spotted
A struggle but thought to have finished though 5 had to be hazarded: looked like SUIT, hence “habit” = clothing, but got no nearer “crawling” than a toddler’s sailor suit which just might have been called SAILSUIT in the US, I hoped? Wrong, sadly: SWIMSUIT much better, very clever.
Very hard for a QC. Struggled dreadfully and needed checkers to make any progress. Biffed a few, but failed to get SUNK – I still don’t think of living people when trying to solve a clue – so a DNF. Does a SAVANNA FOREST exist?
Surely Savanna Forest is an oxymoron. Savannahs may have trees but they are not close together which allows for the grassland.
Please see my comment above replying to Merlin. Posted after your query I hasten to add.
I agree with the comments that this is the easiest Cheeko thus far, 14 minutes compared to 20+ for previous ones. COD SWIMSUIT, LIO SUNAK, I forgot him when running through previous PMs! I’m not sure what that says about his premiership or my memory……
Another Cheeko, another long struggle, though certainly not helped by having a plumber working in the house. Completely floored by loi Swimsuit, to the point where I tossed the paper over to Mrs Invariant for help. She barely glanced at the grid before saying Swimsuit. I’m in real trouble if she ever takes this up! Invariant
I know the feeling well. When I admit to using aids it usually means I’ve asked Mrs S …
What really irks is when she doesn’t even read the clue, but just looks at the crossers (sometimes upside down!) and comes up with the answer.
Another chewy puzzle! My usual tactic of doing acrosses and downs in sequence went by the board as I scrabbled for crumbs wherever I could find them. INTO was FOI, with NORMAL and ANTICHRISTIAN following. SPARE RIB took much longer than it should have, and needed BEWITCH and RUN UP before the penny dropped. NHO SAVANNA FOREST, but saw the wordplay. LOI was ZERO. 12:04. Thanks Cheeko and Roly.
Submitted off leaderboard because I couldn’t make my new iPad keyboard work with the Times app. Seems to work fine accessing the club via the website, but not via the app. Therefore 2 minutes spent faffing about. 13:04 on the timer, so I’ll take 2 mins off that for the time. Longest I’ve taken for a good while.
Took me ages, jumping about the grid trying to get a foothold. LOI SWIMSUIT.
11:04
DNF SWIMSUIT. Normally persevere but this sort of clue really stretches my inability to think outside the box (obviously the reason I took up cryptics!) and I just sort of…gave in. Everything else fell quite easily. Couldn’t quite believe SAVANNAH FOREST but trusted the wordplay. I grew up in Brighton so NEWHAVEN was a write in. Didn’t think of Rishi until I had biffed the clue (still forgetting the new rule). Favourite clue has to be AFT 😁 Thanks so much for the blog roly.
8:58
POI and COD SWIMSUIT. LOI SUNK as I started back at Clement Attlee. Forgot Rishi would now be allowed and finally got it only from the definition: doh!
Enjoyed this very much; thanks Cheeko and Roly.
8:15
Worked backwards for SUN(A)K fortunately. Liked SWIMSUIT too. I had a mental question mark over SLIP and have never heard of a SAVANNA FOREST.
Thanks Cheeko and Roly
I’m impressed to see Sunak in a QC. So many recent ex PMs are words in English. Heath Thatcher Major Brown May Truss.
Needed aids today. Tough half hour. J
I felt my brain was working well to finish this toughie in anything like my target time. In the end I finished about half a minute the wrong side of it in 10.34, but reading the comments and times submitted so far, I think I did well enough.
I could tell this was hard, but it was a slow steady solve with no breeze blocks. Frequently I find Izetti (a setter I often struggle with) has a mix of gimmies and impenetrable clues to words I have NHO.
Finished in just under 15
I am a big fan of Cheeko I think as I am on their wavelength and enjoy the challenge they pose
Thanks Roly!
18:37
Medium difficulty in that I finished within my 20 minute target but had a few head scratchers. I know we’re allowed living people now but I really wasn’t thinking Sunak when I went through my list of ex-PMs. LOI the rather convoluted SAVANNA FOREST which I didn’t know was a thing, savanna usually being grassland and all that.
As ever, failed to spot the NINA.
DNF, struggled to get going. NHO SAVANA FOREST, Savernak, yes
Back to the difficulties at the beginning of the week for this one. I gradually (and very slowly) worked my way round the grid until left with 1ac and 6dn. I spent some time on these to no effect and eventually entered skin at 1ac (doesn’t really parse although you could make a very tenuous connection with both steal and underwear). Completely forgot about Rishi Sunak when reviewing PMs (oh dear – sorry Rishi) but plumped for SUNK which sort of equates to ruined. Anyway, completed in 27 minutes with one error. What on earth is a SAVANNA-FOREST – I’m not convinced this actually exists. I wasn’t sure about ANTICHRISTIAN either – not a word I’ve ever come across. However both had to be.
FOI – 9ac USA
LOI – 6dn SUNK
COD – 3ac NUDISTS
Thanks to Cheeko and Rolytoly
I didn’t think I was going to finish this but OCCUPATIONAL and DISTRIBUTION suddenly opened up both sides and I was away. With U—-E I nearly put in UNCLE until the ‘foregoes introduction’ made me think of uncle’s better half! Pretty tough overall though, and even the SCC had closed its doors by the time my 35 minutes was up. Anyway, got it in the end with LOI SUNK – which I nearly was! Thanks Cheeko and Roly
A rather slow 18:21 for us. Probably wouldn’t have seen SWIMSUIT myself without the assistance of Mrs T. It was LOI SUNK which caused a cry of disbelief though, when the penny finally dropped, because a few months ago I howled with laughter when our local Tory party election leaflet dropped through the door with a reference to Rishi Sunk (sic)! At the time I suspected a prank by the printers coupled with poor attention to proofreading before distribution. How quickly we forget! Thanks Cheeko and Roly.
My 3rd DNF of the week, as I timed out at my cut-off time of 40 minutes, with two clues unsolved. They were SWIMSUIT, although I had it written in faintly, and SUNK, which I was nowhere near.
Also, neither RUN UP nor TANGLED were parsed and several other clues held me up for ages. I didn’t like many of the clues.
Verdict: Too convoluted. I’m not a fan of this setter. Too hard for a QC (yet again). Maybe I should have stopped when I considered doing so a while back.
Thanks to Roly.
15.44 It was harder than yesterday. With SWIMSUIT I was looking for something a baby would wear and the NHO SAVANNA-FOREST took an age at the end. Thanks rolytoly and Cheeko.
Nearly beaten by this one, wandered around the grid, couldn’t see ZERO for ages (I kept wanting to put Nemo, which is “nobody” not “nothing” and wouldn’t parse anyway)! 26:20. Loved SPARE RIB, along with SWIMSUIT, another one that slowed me down considerably, and SUNAK.
Thanks Cheeko and roly!
16m
Hard, struggled with swimsuit, leisure (sure = secure), and LOI sunak.
COD Hazard.
New “rule” on the living persons will allow Starmer in soon. Amazingly cluable name that.
Thanks for this one which was a rare sub ten for me.
I thought I’d cracked it but put SKINSUIT instead of SWIMSUIT!! Both are coverings and both used to swim! Does that count?? Or have I missed something?
Got most of it in about 15:00, then DNF after a further five minutes failing to get SWIMSUIT. I did actually think of that, but dismissed it on the grounds that it didn’t work, and am now confused. I understand that a nun’s habit is clothing, but is the contention that “habit” is a general term for any clothing? Presumably one could swim while wearing a nun’s habit but I can’t imagine that it’s recommended.
Thank you for the blog!
Not sure anyone still reads my comments, but, if you do, this was another poor day.
22 minutes. Lousy performance for a relatively straightforward QC.
75 minutes on proper crossword with 5 unsolved. Also lousy. Blogger found it easy, which demonstrates the vast gulf between this and the QC.
Sounds like you need to get your perception straightened up as according to the Quitch, this was 12th hardest puzzle of the year.
I tend not to look at the Quitch anymore. I found it bore little relevance to how I perform. Should have avoided SCC with a degree of comfort today. Normal service will no doubt be resumed tomorrow.
I often get here the next day so I’m sure someone will see your comments. Not so sure about mine!
I like to do the QC before going to bed so don’t often post here at the end of the day (because it’s all done and dusted) but I really appreciate the blogs. I usually complete it but sunk by ‘sunk’ tonight for a DNF
Night all!
I don’t think I’m the only person who revisits the blog during the evening in order to catch up on what’s been going on, so do continue to post – you will be seen 😊
Oh dear, oh dear. I thought that I had started so well with NICK (Knickers, yes?) in 1 ac and really struggled thereafter until I came here for friendly support. Once I corrected that I made a bit of progress but I can’t claim a finish. 🙁
That had been my first thought too 😅
Dnf…
Everything apart from “Swimsuit” which I still don’t understand.
A bit late completing this, and doing it from memory, so can’t remember what I started with or what was a good clue. However, I know Cheeko is a difficult solver, and this was no exception.
Thanks as usual!