I think that this is quite an easy one because I almost managed the perfect clean sweep (all clues in order), blown out only by 11a. Still, brisk business by my standards at 05:14 so mohn/verlaine may be breaking 2 minutes! Hope you enjoyed it; may the PB be with you.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Tom possibly injured Paul with tip of this weapon (8) |
| CATAPULT – CAT is “Tom possibly”, then an anagram of “Paul” (“injured”) and T for the “tip of this” (first letter). | |
| 5 | Almost perfect notion (4) |
| IDEA – IDEAL is “perfect”, take off the last letter for “almost perfect”, et voila. | |
| 8 | Piece of fruit — round, as it happens (5) |
| OLIVE – olives as “fruit” always catches me, because I habitually think of fruit as sweet. But of course an OLIVE is a fruit, so fair enough. O for “round” + LIVE for “as it happens” (“live broadcast” eg). COD from me for a smooth, elegant surface. | |
| 9 | Trade union golf club keeping old towing vessel (7) |
| TUGBOAT – TU for “trade union”, G for “golf” (NATO alphabet), then BAT for “club” inside which (“keeping”) is O for “old”. Phew. Easier to adopt “biff then parse” on this one; I found it hard to lift and separate “golf” and “club”. | |
| 11 | Conscientious way a top man accompanies father home (11) |
| PAINSTAKING -my LOI, with all checkers in place and even then it took me a while to understand it because it’s a real mosaic of a clue. ST (street) for “way” + A KING for “a top man”. That gives you STAKING. It “accompanies” PA for “father” and IN for “home”. I’m forgiving myself for not getting this straight off the bat! | |
| 13 | Mistakes encountered in Canberra talks (6) |
| ERRATA – hidden word (“encountered in”) in “Canberra talks”. You occasionally used to find a slip inside a book marked ERRATA listing a few known errors discovered after printing; it’s Latin, the plural of “erratum”. Through long usage it is now often treated as a singular noun rather than plural (like “data” or “candelabra”) when referring to a list of errors. | |
| 14 | Church caretaker, initially rather on edge (6) |
| VERGER – thanks to the unforgettable Edward Sinclair as the VERGER in Dad’s Army, this was a gimme for me. “Initially rather” gives us the closing R, and that is added to (“on”) VERGE for “edge”. “Oh do be quiet Mr Yeatman”. | |
| 17 | Girl’s pulling power, a diversion (11) |
| DISTRACTION -DI’S our girl, as she so often is, and she has TRACTION. | |
| 20 | 1100 on returning craft, a river passenger transport (7) |
| TRAMCAR – I grimly built this up from knowing that it had to have MC in it (the Roman numerals for 1,100). I don’t think I’ve ever been on a TRAMCAR, but Edinburgh has spent a fortune on a new system so maybe they’re coming back. The wordplay is MC for 1,100, going “on” TRA for “returning craft” (ART reversed, in other words) + A + R for “river”. Another mosaic and a definite biff-then-parse for me. | |
| 21 | Blast of wind engulfing European visitor (5) |
| GUEST – GUST is a blast of wind and it goes round (“engulfing”) E for “European”. | |
| 22 | Practical Cockney chap (4) |
| ANDY – ‘e’s an ‘andy geezer to ‘ave arahnd, says the stereotypical Cockney of his friend who knows how to plumb in a washing machine (or similar practical task). | |
| 23 | Scottish city woman in a Swiss city (8) |
| ABERDEEN – ditching Di we move on to DEE for our “woman”, and she is inside (“in”) A BERN. Yes I thought it was spelt BERNE too. No it isn’t an error – apparently if you’re French Swiss you say BERNE but if you’re German Swiss you say BERN. How jolly confusing. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Arresting type gathering last of bumper yield (4) |
| CROP – a COP is an “arresting type”, and here he “gathers” an R for the “last [letter] of bumper”. | |
| 2 | Person taking holiday just before the fall? (7) |
| TRIPPER – a cracker joke clue, involving a play on the US sense of “fall” for “autumn”. | |
| 3 | Very old priest involved with choir (11) |
| PREHISTORIC – anagram (“involved”) of PRIEST + CHOIR. | |
| 4 | Up-to-date news from the French trial (6) |
| LATEST – LA for “the French”, TEST for “trial”. | |
| 6 | Indian loincloth some remained hot in (5) |
| DHOTI – hidden (“some”) in “remained hot in”. Famously modelled by Gandhi. | |
| 7 | US soldier in car or rising aircraft (8) |
| AUTOGIRO – this word was at the fringes of my vocabulary and in fact only known to me as “autogyro” but I got there through the wordplay, which is GI for “US soldier”, going inside AUTO for “car” and RO for “or rising” (this being a down clue). | |
| 10 | Sombre Aussie soldier, one working in churchyard (11) |
| GRAVEDIGGER -GRAVE for “sombre” + DIGGER for “Aussie soldier”. Collins has it as Australians more generally than soldiers – hence Rupert Murdoch’s Private Eye nickname, The Dirty Digger. | |
| 12 | Feud involving archdeacon and one owing money, we hear (8) |
| VENDETTA – the honorific for an archdeacon is “venerable”, so that’s VEN. DETTA is aural wordplay for “debtor”, “one owing money”. | |
| 15 | Italian citizens — small number feeding web-footed birds (7) |
| GENOESE – NO for “small number” and that goes inside (“feeding”) GEESE. | |
| 16 | Sign of injury on a black beetle (6) |
| SCARAB – SCAR is “sign of injury” and it goes “on” A + B. There are more than 30,000 varieties of SCARAB beetle, some of them very beautiful. | |
| 18 | When speaking, remained sober (5) |
| STAID – sounds like (“when speaking”) “stayed”. | |
| 19 | Astonish tabloid, seizing end of report (4) |
| STUN – talking of the Dirty Digger, the “tabloid” is The SUN and it has inside it (“seizing”) T for “end of report”. | |
It was really easy until it wasn’t, for me. I NHO DHOTI, AUTOGIRO or VERGER though all three had very fair wordplay and I had built up most of all three words.
I liked PREHISTORIC. is that a chestnut?
On the other hand, I read Indian loincloth and biffed dhoti without bothering to read the rest of the clue. However, I got stuck on the should-be-obvious prehistoric and painstaking. But still, a pretty easy puzzle.
Time: 7:19
I found this pretty straightforward and a pleasure after failing miserably on the 15×15. Liked VENDETTA and GENOESE. I don’t really get the autumn thing in TRIPPER, I just read it as a trip coming before a fall. Maybe I’m missing something.
Thanks Templar and setter.
Like Quadrophenia I didn’t think of autumn, but of course the surface reading requires that meaning; not holiday before falling. I biffed PAINSTAKING, OLIVE, & LOI TRAMCAR. 7:22.
Got it. Thanks
TRAMCAR held me up at the end because I stupidly had MI in mind, not MC, and couldn’t make sense of it until the doh! moment. 8.21, PAINSTAKING and the NHO aircraft also stretching things out. A nicely balanced puzzle from Orpheus, thanks to them and Templar. You rarely hear digger in Oz except when the army is being deployed somewhere and a cookie-cutter Ken Doll TV reporter in a live cross solemnly announces that our thoughts and prayers are with our diggers tonight. Trams are everywhere in Melbourne, they’re great when you’re on them but not so great when you’re stuck behind them in a car.
I also hate driving on the tram tracks 🙁
9 minutes. No problems. Fortunately I had seen ‘loincloth / DHOTI’ in a puzzle elsewhere within the past week so it was fresh in my mind, but on that previous occasion I spent ages trying to drag it up from the depths of memory.
Templar, you have a typo at 1ac where you clearly intended ‘injured’ as the anagrind.
Thanks Jack, fixed.
Crept under 10 minutes only to find I’d acheived a raise vertical mistype and so had PREHISTORId and TRAMdAR. A bit annoying as I’d been pleased with the way I’d rallied after only getting five on the first pass of acrosses. Wasn’t totally confident an AUTOGIRO existing but I was pretty sure I’d done as instructed. Enjoyed seeing my old university city of Aberdeen make an appearance and I always like it when a clue crams a lot in – four things to do to get to the seven letter TUGBOAT.
11½ minutes with the unknown AUTOGIRO as my LOI. Quite a few clues in the biff then parse category but nothing ungetable. Not sure I’d ever use the word TRAMCAR (nor I see does my autocorrect) – to me they are just trams.
Many thanks Templar for the blog
Cedric
My apologies for lack of service from the SNITCH today. Some of the backend needs to be replaced with updated software versions.
Very fast (for me) today at 7:55 despite the need for lots of detailed construction. Just brief hesitations at TRIPPER, TRAMCAR and AUTOGIRO (which I too would have spelled with a Y). I liked CATAPULT and GENOESE
13:38 – I was held up past nine minutes by AUTOGIRO and PAINSTAKING where I never thought of putting dad at the front, and began to question TRIPPER.
Good puzzle from Orpheus, a setter whom I used to struggle with but seems to have found the right mix of chestnuts and helpful defs today. Nonetheless likely still a stiff challenge for those getting into cryptics.
You just nipped my time as I sat there wondering about A_T_G_R_ for ages, not trusting that the three obvious parts added up to an aircraft!
It seemed harder than it should given the US soldier had to be a GI. Tried to find an AUDI for the car but eventually worked my way up the clue from RO / or.
Didn’t find this as gentle as some but no major delays. My main issues were with AUTOGIRO (which I think is a NHO but have a vague inkling that it may have appeared in a previous QC), TRAMCAR and LOI PAINSTAKING.
Crossed the line in 7.51.
Thanks to Templar
6:12 except I had annoyingly CCARAB instead of SCARAB. It was indeed very easy and I thought for a while I might be on for my first sub-5 minute time but it wasn’t to be.
I took off clockwise and kept going.
I liked the “Mix and Match” variety of clues with several Meccano clues.
A bit over par (24 mins), but I put that down to distraction from CCTV showing rising water levels inside our Florida house until the power failed at about 4ft 6 inch. Oh well. Just as well it didn’t get repaired last week. Clearing the resulting mess is very hard work and fishy.
Thanks Orpheus and Templar
Oh, so sorry to read this. Hope everyone you know there is safe.
Sounds like a nightmare 🙁 hope everyone is at least safe!
@Tina, @Roundabout Here
Mandatory evacuation so everyone safe and no neighbours were foolish enough to stay. Two years ago a friend and his wife stayed throughout H. Ian. They still have nightmares of the experience.
I took it to heart and left the country! I expect it will be a week before they clear the roads of debris, re-connect power and allow access. By which time everything in the freezer will have turned to mush and the battle to prevent mould becomes urgent. Thank you for your kind words.
Gosh how grim. Glad everyone’s safe and best of luck with the aftermath.
Our thoughts are with you, your friends and your neighbours
Best of luck in the clean-up! It sounds so daunting, Floridians must be tough.
This was the second flood in two weeks (H. Helene & H. Milton). No wind damage from Helene and hopefully none from Milton. No power or access yet. Our house is on pilings and garage/work shop/storage/stuff on ground floor, living on two top floors. H. Ian two years ago was hurricane and flood so damaged roof/windows/doors.. etc. That just got repaired this August! The last time we had living area damage was H. Charley 2004 following which the structure was strengthened significantly. House is on an island within 10m of Gulf of Mexico so flooding is a strong possibility but, until recently, rare. Practical options are either to sell up and move (many are actively considering this), or restrict lower level to open plan, housing only perishable/immersible/buoyant items which is probably the most sensible. Once power and access are restored I shall head back to start on clean-up and restoring to normality. It is a tough call, and a long commute, but so far the benefits of spending time on a nature conservation focused barrier island outweigh the pain (and cost) of recovery. Thank you for your good wishes. Richard. Or perhaps I should rename as Robinson Crusoe
Richard I richly admire your stoicism and I’ll uphold you in my thoughts in the coming weeks.
I love your attitude, Mr Crusoe!
My thoughts are with you. Fingers crossed for your recovery plans.
7:24
With VERGER, GRAVEDIGGER and Archdeacon, I was wondering whether there was a theme of ecclesiastical employees, but those seemed to be the only ones.
LOI ABERDEEN. It was the only Scottish city that fitted, but I could not work out how the wordplay worked.
Thanks Templar and Orpheus
Nicely in the groove on this one, sat in a lovely hotel garden in Calabria. All done in what felt like a leisurely 17.12 which is probably our typical target these days.
Thanks Orpheus for some beautiful clues, guest being our favourite
Yes Templar, my first thought on verger was Dads Army too😀 . Nice comic moment here, as I typed that I was considering if it was Dad’s army, and then on saying to Mrs RH it’s not an army belonging to dad, we both laughed out loud at our favourite line in Gavin and Stacey. Pam insists on referring to Barry Island in Wales as Barry’s Island and eventually Mick says to her “it’s Barry Island, it’s not an island belonging to someone called Barry” 😂😂😂
I always think of Verger from the Dad’s Army board game, which I used to play a lot
From CATAPULT to AUTOGIRO in 6:43. My penultimate solve was PAINSTAKING which then allowed the construct of the NHO AUTOGIRO.
Blimey, came in at 8 minutes which for me is a miracle. Lots of shoe-ins confirmed with parsing.
Made my day 🙂
Excellent, well done!
🏆
DNF This was the hardest of the week and not quite sure why I am one of the few that did not find it easy. Wavelength I guess.
Finished and enjoyed. Gosh, must be a record for an Izetti. Wish I had timed it. LOI after some thought AUTOGIRO, fairly clued.
Liked mention of Canberra where we lived once.
Also liked ABERDEEN, ANDY, VENDETTA, LATEST, CROP, among others.
Thanks vm, Templar.
It would indeed have been easy for an Izetti … unfortunately it was by Orpheus!
Oh dear, should have gone to Specsavers.
Haha. Perfect!
😀
The two difficult ones stumped me: NHO AUTOGIRO, and just couldn’t see PAINSTAKING. Don’t think I berate myself, all in all ….. Mrs M helped with GENOESE (we were there just last year), a nice one. Thank you, Templar.
Very nearly a sub-15, but even with all the crossers (and the trailing -ing), loi Painstaking took ages to see. My difficulty was that having spotted it could start with Priest (Father), it was ridiculously difficult to give up on the idea. Autogi(y)ro on the other hand was a write-in, courtesy of a dimly remembered aerial battle scene from You Only Live Twice. CoD to 20ac, Tramcar, for the pdm. Invariant
For a minute I thought you meant the hover boat thing (not sure what they’re called) in Live and Let Die.
No, JB was in the autogyro and (if I remember rightly) shotdown a couple of persuing helicopters with some fancy missile work.
Autogiro called”Little Nellie” as I recall – I remember making the Airfix model!
I didn’t find it quite as straightforward as some, but I nevertheless managed to finish within target at 9.32. Mainly held up in the sw corner where VENDETTA took longer than it should. Ironically it was ANDY that was my LOI. Ridiculous when you consider the answer was staring me in the face, at least in a mirror!
I cannot see that anyone has fully explained the Cockney rhyming slang. It was Andy Cap, for Chap, and then‘Andy for handy (practical) – great clue, needs full justice!
“Andy Cap” (or Capp, after the cartoon character) is not CRS for “chap”. It is CRS for “crap” in some sources, though – eg here http://download.enative.ir/slang/SL007-A-Dictionary-of-English-Rhyming-Slangs.pdf
From CATAPULT to GENOESE in 5:41. Lots of assembling today! Thanks Orpheus and Templar.
Yep, a nice straightforward one, though with some very good clues.
I liked PREHISTORIC, DISTRACTION, VENDETTA. LOI TRAMCAR – there’s a “tram” that goes from Wimbledon to Croydon, though it doesn’t run on roads like a proper tram does, more of a small train really. Still, it’s handy for IKEA I suppose.
4:33
It definitely runs on roads going through Croydon.🙂
I stand corrected! I’ve only ever been as far as IKEA.
Time-wise: One leisurely coffee today. AUTOGIRO took some working out as it was only VHO, as did TRAMCAR which I parsed after solving. Liked VENDETTA, DISTRACTION and ANDY as they all raised a smile. Tried to work ‘ducks’ into GENOESE initially but dunocks didn’t seem to work (just me then 😆). Very enjoyable. Many thanks Orpheus and Templar.
“Dunocks”: An excellent attempt!
I had to wait until Harry Brook achieved his triple century (in Pakistan) before I could concentrate on this. Then I didn’t find it as easy as our blogger would have us believe. Time = 33 minutes, which is a little over target/par for me.
It’s always a boost to solve 1a straight away and CATAPULT didn’t disappoint. The next few Acrosses were more tricky however, so I switched to the Downs and made more progress there.
I had NHO DHOTI and found PAINSTAKING and TRAMCAR difficult to deconstruct. My last few in were ANDY, VENDETTA and AUTOGIRO (shouldn’t it be spelt with a Y?), which sounds like some sort of Post Office direct debit.
Many thanks to Orpheus and Templar.
I could only think of AUTOGIRO as something to eat.
🤣 ugh
Wiktionary allows both spellings, gyro/giro.
Most enjoyable puzzle for a gorgeous frosty morning.
LOI: VENDETTA. Must make a note of Ven for Archdeacon.
COD: TRAMCAR as I could not see how MC was going to fit into a word that wasn’t a Scottish name but there it was – a two part word really.
Thanks both
24:59
Mostly easy, all but 2 completed in 15 minutes but then spent 10 mins over AUTOGIRO and LOI PAINSTAKING, taking me well over my 20 minute target. Just couldn’t see them and had to assemble the answers piece by piece.
Enjoyed this. The word play was on my wavelength and no raised eyebrows.
Nho autogiro but got by word play. Last ones in olive and painstaking.
24 mins. Had break to extract my black cat from a mega fight. Lots of white fur left on ground.
Thanks to Orpheus and Templar.
Pretty straightforward apart from AUTOGIRO (had to look it up), the biffed ABERDEEN and a while to work out PAINSTAKING.
I hope all our Florida puzzlers are safe and sound after the hurricane(s).
Perhaps the comments section could be put into a divisional table based on solving time. We could have Premier (sub 6 minutes) Championship (sub 12), League 1 etc.
I could then head straight to League 1 or 2 to compare my efforts with like minded strugglers. 30 minutes today. Not likely to be in the play offs let alone automatic promotion continuing in that form.
Very enjoyable puzzle – thank you Orpheus and Templar for the blog.
Echo Lichdb’s sentiments re our American colleagues.
Greetings from National League South!
😀
Very good.
Does anyone remember horryd’s categories starting with Greyhound for very fast?
Do any Hollywood millionaires want to pay me to study so I can get back to back promotions ala Wrexham
I need it
Good fun, and timed to perfection while waiting for son to be signed off at the eye clinic!
FOI 1a Catapult
LOI 18d Staid – just got there last
COD – 17a Distraction – had first thoughts of divertimento but clearly incorrect and then maybe di..torque…also obviously incorrect. Didn’t take long to see the obviously right construction.
4:22
Like our blogger today, I came close to a full house of across clues bunged straight in – 17a and 23a were the missing pair – which made the downs pretty easy to fill in. Only held up slightly with GENOESE, VENDETTA and failed to parse ABERDEEN while in flight, though the checkers meant that the answer couldn’t really be anything else.
Thanks Templar and Orpheus
A rare sub 10 for me which is about as fast as I can one finger type on my smartphone.
Had to await checkers for Aberdeen and autogiro.
Bifd Painstaking and glad I did as the wordplay (thanks for the explanation Templar) imho is like building flat pack furniture with a banana where instructions read…
Place the Team Naples disrupted (4,4),*
& on a flat
surface, as shown.
Insert two dryers (time wasted and daughter takes lead) (6)*
secure with the turn keys (6)*
…my brain 🍌 being the assembly tool
Thank heavens for checkers and thanks to Templar and Orpheus
*(Side panels, dowels and screws)
Excellent!
I too thought of AUTOGIRO with a ‘y’, although having just typed it auto correct agrees with’I’!could not get head truly round TRIPPER, trip= fall, fine, but where’s the rest of it?
No great problems today – all done and parsed in 14 minutes. Nice puzzle.
FOI – 5ac IDEA
LOI – 7dn AUTOGIRO
COD – 3dn PREHISTORIC for the surface
Thanks to Orpheus and Templar
8:47 and pretty smooth sailing with AUTOGIRO LOI.
My biff of TRAWLER for TRAMCAR didn’t work, until I saw the MC bit.
PREHISTORIC = choir +priest, very nice.
5.03 I didn’t know AUTOGYRO could be spelled with an I but after Tuesday’s failure I paid careful attention to the cryptic. GBAT from golf club was a nice change from the usual putters, wedges, etc. I feel like I’m finally getting the hang of these puzzles so there’ll probably be a stinker tomorrow. Thanks Templar and Orpheus.
11:48, mostly straightforward. Did anyone else waste some time wondering whether a TAOMCBA might be a river passenger transport?
Thank you for the very helpful blog!
12 mins…
Pretty straightforward I thought. Thankfully, 6dn “Dhoti” was a generous hidden clue, otherwise it may have been a different story. 3dn “Prehistoric” felt very Private Eye with the wordplay.
FOI – 1dn “Crop”
LOI – 14ac “Verger”
COD – 1ac “Catapult”
Thanks as usual!
9:57 here. NHO autogiro, which I’m not sad about because it’s an ugly word. COD to distraction.
Thanks to Templar and Orpheus.
An enjoyable 12:42 solve, especially liked OLIVE, my last one in, and PAINSTAKING, where I only partly understood the assembly instructions until afterward. Another visit from good old Dee and Di today. It’s a good thing the wordplay was clear on 7D because I only knew the spelling AUTOGyRO.
Thanks to Orpheus and Templar!
Enjoyable puzzle finished in a quick time for us.
06:10
Only held up by verger and LOI tramcar. Good day ignoring fft.
COD Andy
Spent ages trying to put ONE rather than NO into various web footed birds and got completely stumped by PAINSTAKING. Vendetta took me a while as well not knowing Ven but got eventually by thinking of words with debtor. The final nail in the coffin was Autogiro and a resultant DNF.
Really liked CATAPULT and in all an enjoyable puzzle getting me through 20 minutes of the train ride home. Thanks to both
Mrs T is back on the case and helped us out to a relatively swift 8:53 finish. A MER at AUTOGIRO which I also would have spelled with a Y but the wordplay was clear.
Steady solve. TRAMCAR, SCARAB and AUTGIRO were the delayers.
Thanks for the erudite blog, as always.
Cracking time Templar 👏👏👏
No PB for me (well, apart from the obvious) but I was happy to complete in 8:44.
I’m getting a bit fed up with Di for girl – I don’t know any Dianas or Dianes under the age of 65! Woman surely 😅
I do quite like a tram though – those in Nottingham are good, but most recently I’ve been on trolley buses in Salzburg. Love them! It took me right back to my childhood and the trolley buses in Reading.
FOI Catapult LOI Verger (I kept thinking sexton, but knew that was wrong!) COD I rather liked PAINSTAKING but otherwise nothing really stood out.
Thanks Orpheus and Templar
At this stage of the proceedings, I have precisely one clue entered in the biggie – I shall return to it shortly but don’t hold out much hope.
On returning: I took nearly an hour to do all but the last three in the NW corner – very hard! Time to stop now and relax with Taskmaster 😅
That’s a fair point about the age of Dianas, Penny – I can’t think of one in my sons’ friendship groups.
Trolley buses remind me of “Would You Kill the Fat Man?” by David Edmonds, sub-title “The Trolley Problem”. It’s an excellent account of a small branch of ethical philosophy now known rather inelegantly as “Trolley-ology” and originating in the work of the brilliant Philippa Foot. Well worth a read!
On the other hand, there are quite a few Penelopes under the age of 10 – the rest are also probably mostly over 65 😅 So who knows, maybe Diana will become trendy again. It probably needs a popular TV series to kick start that one too!
Nothing to do with I Hear You Knocking or Girls Talk then? The Trolley Problem sounds like a very big problem to me, but I can imagine MrB and our son would find it interesting – onto the book list it goes.
13:41 for me at the end of a long day. Thanks all.