Solving time: 6:00
It would have been very tempting to spend a lot more time enjoying the scenery and the surfaces of this, the 9th Joker QC that I have blogged, as I reach the modest landmark of 50 alternate-Wednesday blogs.
The answer to 16a made me chuckle (if only for memories of Dick Dastardly), as did the notion of a ‘sweet goat’ (in flavour or in manner?) at 6d.
15d should be a write-in, especially with a few crossers in place – indeed, I found the crossers to be most helpful in quickly seeing 8a before falling down the ace = A, ten = X rabbit hole…
I hope you enjoyed it as well. Let me know how you got on…
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | A sex clue contrived about British? That can be forgiven (9) |
| EXCUSABLE – Anagram [contrived] of A SEX CLUE about B (British) | |
| 6 | Wild ox thus getting into scrap (5) |
| BISON – SO (thus) getting into BIN (scrap) | |
| 8 | Who has ace and ten, perhaps primarily hoaxing a royal pair? (9) |
| CARDSHARP – CARDS (ace and ten, perhaps) then first letters [primarily] of H{oaxing} A R{oyal} P{air}
A CARDSHARP is someone who cheats at cards to win money. Not sure that there is any particular significance in ‘ace and ten’ other than perhaps to lure the solver to the edge of the rabbit hole, believing that these might be substituted by A and X? I don’t know either whether ‘hoaxing a royal pair’ is actually ‘a thing’ – it does contribute to the notion that a CARDSHARP is not someone who plays fair… |
|
| 9 | Test procedure introduced by industrialists (5) |
| TRIAL – Hidden [introduced by] in industrialists
Mild eyebrow twitch that the ‘hidden’ is indicated by ‘introduced by’… |
|
| 10 | Who sells clothes available in better shape (9) |
| OUTFITTER – OUT (available) FITTER (in better shape)
If the latest copy of ‘New Scientist’ is OUT, it is ‘available’ at your local newsagent. (Other periodicals are available) |
|
| 12 | Preferably, the woman’s pursuing betrayer (6) |
| RATHER – HER (the woman’s i.e. possessive pronoun) following (pursuing) RAT (betrayer)
The Middle English RATHER, comes from Old English hraþor “more quickly; earlier, sooner,” also “more readily or willingly”. It used to have a collection of related words… The adverb rathe was obsolete by 18c. except in poetry (Tennyson); the superlative rathest “earliest, soonest, first” fell from use by the 17th century. Middle English formed an alternative superlative ratherest (c. 1400) and also had rathely “quickly, swiftly; immediately” (early 14c.) |
|
| 13 | US circus showman that’s one for new element (6) |
| BARIUM – BARNUM is the US circus showman (Phineas Taylor Barnum (1810-1891)) – replace the N (new) with I (one) [one for new] | |
| 16 | Drat this puzzle! (9) |
| CROSSWORD – ‘Drat’ is a WORD that you might say when you are CROSS i.e. a CROSS WORD
From the early 19th century, DRAT is a restrained form of the exclamation “God rot (something/someone)!” |
|
| 18 | Just fitting exactly (5) |
| RIGHT – Triple definition | |
| 19 | Fossil commonplace around central parts of wild Gobi (9) |
| TRILOBITE – TRITE (commonplace) around middle letters [central parts] of {w}IL{d} {g}OB{I}
To define TRITE simply as ‘commonplace’ is a tad simplistic, but then, how long do you want the clue to be? Collins defines something TRITE as ‘dull and boring because it has been said or told too many times‘. TRILOBITEs are so called for the three longitudinal lobes into which the body is divided. They are among the largest and most widely known fossils in the extensive Cambrian and Silurian beds of England. |
|
| 21 | Pike maybe taking small fruit (5) |
| SPEAR – S (small) PEAR (fruit)
‘taking’ is just for surface – though it kind of suggests that it might be Private Pike from Dad’s Army doing the taking, rather than… The pike was a spear-headed weapon, varying considerably from 3m to 7m long. According to Wiki, a SPEAR becomes a pike when it is too long to be wielded with one hand in combat. |
|
| 22 | Killing Phil, Mario and Gus? Off with their heads! (9) |
| HILARIOUS – Take the first letter away [Off with their heads!] from This definition of ‘Killing’ is described as ‘dated’ by at least one source. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Half open? Near – shut in (7) |
| ENCLOSE – Half of |
|
| 2 | Look after exhibition of great appeal round Royal Academy (6) |
| CURATE – CUTE (of great appeal) round RA (Royal Academy)
The meaning of “be in charge of a museum, library, etc.” is from 1660s. Before that, it was more “act as spiritual guide, or as the paid deputy of a parish priest“. |
|
| 3 | His cooking includes American rice-based dish (5) |
| SUSHI – Anagram [cooking] of HIS includes i.e. insert US (American) | |
| 4 | Nasty stink over a snake (3) |
| BOA – B.O. (Nasty stink i.e. body odour) over A
‘over’ is apposite as this is a down clue I’ve written it with punctuation between the letters B and O as it is pronounced Bee Oh and not simply ‘BO’… |
|
| 5 | Former boundary broken by Newton, practical scientist (12) |
| EXPERIMENTER – EX (Former) PERIMETER (boundary) broken by i.e. insert N (Newton i.e. the SI unit of force) | |
| 6 | Sweet goat possibly getting bed in school (12) |
| BUTTERSCOTCH – BUTTER (goat possibly) then COT (bed) in SCH (school)
I was amused by the notion of a ‘Sweet goat’ but here, lifting and separating is your friend… |
|
| 7 | Heel I allowed to get caught in street, initially tripping over (8) |
| STILETTO – I LET (allowed) inserted between [to get caught in] ST (street) and the first letters [initially] of T{ripping} O{ver} | |
| 11 | Shape altering in a fluid way (8) |
| TRIANGLE – Anagram [in a fluid way] of ALTERING | |
| 14 | Speak to daughter trying on a garment? (7) |
| ADDRESS – D (daughter) inserted into [trying on] A DRESS (garment?) | |
| 15 | What’s very likely to be spotted in game (6) |
| DOMINO – A mildly cryptic clue – 27 of the 28 DOMINOes in a set will have at least one spot – there is a double-blank with no spots on it – therefore a DOMINO is very likely to be ‘spotted’ | |
| 17 | What cleaner does in Earls Court to some extent (5) |
| SCOUR – Hidden [to some extent] in Earls Court | |
| 20 | Half and half, I’m well and not well (3) |
| ILL – ‘Half and half’ here means half each of the next two words, so I{‘m} {we}LL | |
Not too bad. We do have a Barnum Avenue in town, extending into the adjoining city where Mr Barnum was one of the better-known residents. I just did the east ones first, and then biffed the rest. Trilobite, butterscotch, card sharp – obvious answers all. I did have to think for a minute about domino, as the crossers were quite unhelpful.
Time: 8:08
7:33 wowee. Made up for the disaster I made of yesterday’s puzzle.
I biffed ‘TRIAL’, I don’t understand ‘introduced by’ really.
I loved HILARIOUS. I think equating something funny with being murderous has always been slang. These days the kids use 💀 emoji to indicate laughter over the 😂 one.
👍
👍
I loved HILARIOUS, too, Tina. I think the setter would have been pleased with that one.
I thought this was right down the middle of the QC fairway, with a few testing clues but nothing that couldn’t be worked out. I was held up at the end by trying (and failing) to bung in TRILOBITE from memory rather than using the wordplay, but still finished in 7.49. FOI was 1ac, which always helps, and LOI was the fossil after some work. Thanks Joker and Mike, congrats on the half ton.
Biffed a bunch: CARDSHARP, TRILOBITE, BUTTERSCOTCH, STILETTO, TRIANGLE. Mike, note that your definition of ‘trite’ is from COBUILD, a dictionary for non-native learners of English; not that it matters here. Collins puts its COBUILD definitions first. 6:14.
9 minutes with TRILOBITE from wordplay and checkers. It comes up occasionally but won’t stick in my brain.
Didn’t understand TRIAL but bunged it in and needed to trust the cryptic not to put a Y in TRILOBITE. Took a disappointingly long time to get CROSSWORD, entered just before LOI DOMINO, which with that last checker suddenly became clear! All green in 12.37.
12:42. Thought I was in for a real struggle when I got none of the first five acrosses. Fortunately the bottom half and the down clues were more on my wavelength.
Thanks to Joker & thanks and congrats on the half-century to Mike.
I found this fairly gentle with only a brief hold up for my LOI.
I needed to trust the wordplay for TRILOBITE which I probably have seen before but, like Jackkt, needed to relearn today.
Particularly enjoyed CROSSWORD and HILARIOUS.
Started with EXCUSABLE and finished with DOMINO in a sprightly 5.44.
Thanks to Mike
An enjoyable 8 minute solve, would have been much faster and near PB time but I was thoroughly breezeblocked by CARDSHARP. I needed an alphabet search in the end as I had no idea where the wordplay was going – not easy with a 9 letter word but fortunately it broke into 2 halves and then the first half (Card-) came quick enough.
Many thanks Mike for the blog and congratulations on the half century. And all of them informative and enjoyable!
Cedric
Unlike our blogger we did stop several times along the way to enjoy Joker’s puns and dad jokes with at least three giving us a laugh out loud moment, butterscotch was the favourite. All done at 20.57.
Spent a little while after getting 1a straight off wondering if scook was some NHO American rice dish and needed the I at the end to dispel it.
We also thought trilobite had a y and spent too long thinking there was a g in there somewhere from gobi, but with all the crossers it had to be what it was!
Thanks Joker and Mike
10:58 which I thought was going to be more of a struggle after looking at the first few Across clues.
Joker seems to have got more complicated in setting clues recently and this was no exception. Some thought required to fully unravel clues postsolve. But reliable as ever in amusing surfaces and populating the grid with words you’ll know.
Well done to MikeH for this and his previous blogs . I searched through the intro for a NINA celebrating his 50 alternate Wednesday blogs and there it was in plain sight at the end of first para 😉
4:08. LOI CARDSHARP. I liked the CROSS WORD (and crossword). Thanks Joker and Mike (and well done on the half-century).
All very enjoyable (especially liked CARDSHARP, CROSSWORD and BUTTERSCOTCH) – until the last two, NHO BARNUM (US culture again) or BARIUM so no chance there, and DOMINO … well how does one tumble to that one?! Thank you, Mike.
Oh by the way NHO Newton = N – usually the single letter standing for ‘force’ is F – but it was obvious enough.
The Newton, symbol N is the SI unit of force.
Thank you; so you mean it’s fair to clue “force” = either F or N ?
Ah – I see the distinction – all clear – thank you for your reply (below)!
Not necessarily, but it’s ok to clue ‘N’ with Newton.
Don’t forget G … gravity is also a force.
Force = Mass x Acceleration is Newton’s Second Law which is abbreviated to F=ma. So F=force is fair game.
And I’d assume any SI Unit (e.g. N=Newton) is allowed as abbreviations are expected to be seen in the real world. I’ve seen H=Henry at least once as it’s a SI unit.
H = Henry I knew – seen that often, yes. G = gravity is obvous enough. I hope that doesn’t also mean (by extension) that “force” in the clue can = G ? All interesting – thank you!
Yes, force in a clue could be G. I saw it only this morning in the Crusader puzzle – “Force Merlin to sort out unexpected fault (7) = GREMLIN”
Thank you, Ex-LPlates – good to be warned!
I only know Barnum from the stage musical with Michael Crawford. We had the album. All together now…
“There is a sucker born every minute,
each time that second hand gets to the top
like dandelions up they pop” etc etc.
11:01 with LOI CARDSHARP where I still don’t quite see the definition but, as Mike says, “hoaxing” gives the right flavour. I liked the clever HILARIOUS and the TRIANGLE anagram
Lots biffable, but when parsing post solve, very elegant clues. Bravo Joker! Slightly over “par” for difficulty.
LOI CURATE, COD HILARIOUS.
5:41
Again struggled at times but got there in the end. I don’t know about fossils but TRILOBITE was fairly clued. LOI PDM DOMINO, having considered leopards and dice.
Once I biffed BUTTERSCOTCH and EXPERIMENTER things improved.
Liked CROSSWORD, HILARIOUS (COD), OUTFITTER, SUSHI.
Thanks for great blog, Mike.
Thanks for the blog. As with others, I didn’t see TRIAL but just had to trust it. NHO CARDSHARP but guess-able from cryptic.
I had some trouble with 7d STILETTO.
I LET is not inserted between ST = street, as that leaves S{TILE}T before TO. Rather, I LET follows ST, which I don’t see how that is indicated by “to get caught in”. Unsure if there’s an angle I’m not seeing, or if it’s an error. It didn’t hold me up once I had a couple checkers.
Enjoyable puzzle! COD CROSSWORD – an entirely unbiased opinion, of course!
I is caught in St and Allowed (let), then T, O.
12 mins…
Lots to like in this with some excellent and amusing surfaces. Might be being thick, but does the goat = butter refer to some expression or is it literally goat butter?
FOI – 6ac “Bison”
LOI – 15dn “Domino”
COD – 5dn “Experimenter”
Thanks as usual!
Butting is something that goats are notorious for.
Dear me, I’m being slow this morning.
It’s okay I didn’t get it either until just now.
Your honesty gave me a good laugh! It’s the kind of thing I would ask.
7:55, with EXPERIMENTER my LOI and COD.
Thanks Joker and Mike
A fun puzzle today, living up to the setter’s name. My first thought for pike was fish – interesting how we have different word associations. Slow to see CARDSHARP and EXPERIMENTER. COD HILARIOUS. Thanks Joker and congratulations Mike on your half century.
I struggled to get started and had two or three odd clues solved before finishing quite quickly.
LOI TRIAL which I had thought of early on but could not parse.
10 minutes in the end.
Overall I enjoyed this but hard to pick a COD.
David
From EXCUSABLE to TRILOBITE in 6:25. I biffed CARDSHARP and BUTTERSCOTCH but parsed them post submission. I enjoyed both CROSSWORD and HILARIOUS (I didn’t see the answer until the end of the construction). Thank you Mike for your 50 blogs.
7:26
LOI TRILOBITE after the nice PDM of DOMINO.
Mostly held up by my COD, CURATE.
Thanks Joker and Mike.
DNF
Aaargh! All but one done in 12 mins but failed to see DOMINO and had to make up a word. Obvious with hindsight.
An excellent puzzle from Joker I thought, and on the quicker side for me. Always good to see some science included. LOI OUTFITTER, COD to ILL, Time 11:51. Thanks all.
A comfortable sub-20 for everything apart from loi 15d. I agree with our esteemed Blogger (congratulations on the half century, by the way) that this should have been obvious but, having started down the game=animal route, it took me several frustrating minutes before the pdm. CoD to 14d, Address, probably a chestnut but a first time one for me. Invariant
Mike wrote Not sure that there is any particular significance in ‘ace and ten’ other than perhaps to lure the solver to the edge of the rabbit hole, believing that these might be substituted by A and X?
I don’t know either whether ‘hoaxing a royal pair’ is actually ‘a thing’ – it does contribute to the notion that a CARDSHARP is not someone who plays fair…
I assume a Royal Pair beats an Ace and 10 in a game like poker. Therefore the cardsharp would have to bluff the other players into believing they have something better. Or just cheat.
Clever!
Good insight!
Ace and ten is 21 – the highest pair in Blackjack – beating two royals (20)!
Very enjoyable, thanks Joker and Mike
I always go back to study the clues afterwards – it often takes me longer than actually completing the puzzle, but it’s invaluable if I’m to improve the standard of clueing in my humble “Weekend QC” offerings. This was excellent, and also accessible as I solved all the Down clues on the first pass, leaving just four Across clues to clear.
FOI EXCUSABLE
LOI SPEAR
COD BARIUM
TIME 3:44
The usual standard of puzzle from the Joker, that is neither too tricky or too easy, at least as far as I’m concerned. A steady solve had me crossing the line in 9.39. I’ll give COD to CROSSWORD.
A relatively straightforward QC today, although delayed by DOMINO, trying to fit IS (to be) inside a four letter game! Clues that make me smile are one of life’s little pleasures. COD HILARIOUS.
POLISO. Obviously wrong but fits the wordplay.
Indeed it does, and was (briefly) considered by yours truly before being rejected. Other bizarre examples from this morning’s entertainment include: half and half = fifty-fifty = quite iffy (not well) + Fit to a T . . . those whom the gods etc
Hadn’t noticed the punctilious “likely” in 15d Domino. Yes, double blank is spotless. LOI; the only one not in the fill-in-the-next-light progress from top to bottom.
Slowest solve – probably 8a Cardsharp.
A rare SCC escape opportunity was well and truly thwhacked into the long grass by BARIUM, which was my LOI. My (normally encyclopaedic) knowledge of American circus showmen somehow deserted me and I just could not see how the clue worked. So, having come up with rAdIUM and BARIUM, I ended up spending eight frustrating minutes checking for other elements and then trying to decide between the two. I got there in the end, but not before twice having to resist a strong urge to throw in the towel.
Time = 25 minutes (17 + 8 for 13a)
My favourite clue on the way through was CROSSWORD, which I surprised myself by getting without the help of any checkers.
Thanks to Joker and Mike.
The Barnum clue obviously didn’t have a little something for you …
15:12
Nice puzzle from Joker. Slower than average.
Lots of nice clues: cardsharp, outfitter, crossword, sushi, stiletto, triangle, address, and ill.
COD crossword.
13:03. I had trouble banishing BOLERO from my brain on seeing _O___O in the answer. I knew BOLERO had several meanings so what’s one more? Congrats, Mike, hope there’s many more of your enjoyable offerings!
15.47 with no errors although I took far too long parsing LOI BARIUM, PDM when I realised “one for new” meant I needed to substitute the N for I in Barnum. FOI – RATHER, COD – CROSSWORD which made me chuckle. Thanks Mike (congratulations on your 50th blog) and Joker
Happy to finish in 45 minutes! A rare sub hour solve for me. The showman give me the most trouble until he slowly emerged from the far reaches of my brain after spending 10 minutes trying all the elements I could think of which fitted the crossers.
A very fair puzzle after yesterday’s disaster. A rare completion for me so guess I was on Jokers wavelength.
A witty and nicely judged puzzle. Left hand side took longer to finish, but no major holdups.
Finally one I could breeze through this week. Spelling of TRILOBITE, was slightly problematic ( TRIGOBITE?)
I’m 20d with Covid (how retro) so did this between naps. 08:34 with COD to the sweet goat. Many thanks Mike (and congratulations!) and Joker.
Hope you feel better soon.
I’m sorry you’re ill, Templar and hope the symptoms leave you, soon.
Lovely QC from Joker that this resident of the SCC sailed through (and nearly escaping the SCC!). Thanks for the parsing of BUTTERSCOTCH. And my GK was up to BARNUM and TRILOBITE (both biffed before parsing). 😀
Failed on 13a Barnham. knew the word but could not sort out the clue. Otherwise rest was straightforward.
20 mins ish. LOI Cardsharp. Could not parse BOA except defn of snake and Hilarious but the wordplay got it. Thanks Mike and Joker
A later than usual in the day 10:01 for an enjoyable set of clues. Thanks Mike and Joker.
Congratulations to you, Mike, on achieving the half-century milestone. I always enjoy your blogs. I also look forward to an Izetti because it won’t be so easy but every clue is eminently do-able and fun to solve. Actually, this one went in very quickly (for me). Maybe unblocking a troublesome and stubborn drain this afternoon cleared my head! Anyway, not a straight top to bottom solve but no serious hold-ups.
FOI 1a Excusable
LOI 2d Curate as I worked round polishing them off
COD – lots to choose from but 22a Hilarious certainly amused.
8.13 I carelessly biffed Barnum, which held up TRIANGLE at the end. Much else was biffed but only TRIAL remained unparsed afterwards. Thanks Joker and Mike, and well done!
15 minutes – lousy!
I look at the time of solvers who began roughly when I did and wonder why I bother. I simply do not have the brain for this and never will. Fed up. ☹️
Don’t worry about the times, Gary – as long as you enjoy the challenge, that’s all that matters.
Sad, but we do this over our evening meal. My wife is very good at guessing the right answer without worrying about parsing; I like to see how the parsing works. We usually finish about the SCC mark, sometimes in, sometimes out. Today it was 18.02, so you beat us!
Thanks 😊
I’ve been doing them for years and still think 20 mins to finish without using aids is a good day.
Thanks Filbert
21/30 on big crossword.
The usual sprinkling of howlers, guesses and lack of a sufficiently wide vocabulary. There was a brief run when I got a few and felt like I knew what I was doing, but it didn’t last long. Hard to enjoy this when it’s such a slog.
PS Just realised that yesterday I failed on both the QC and the big crossword by one letter. Remarkable for all the wrong reasons.
Late in the day but a great puzzle and a great time (for me) of 10 minutes. Not quite a PB but close. Loved the wit in several clues and learned some new technique (“off with their heads!”). CROSSWORD my favourite but ex-perime(n)ter close runner-up. And altering a great anagram for TRIANGLE: who’d have thought it? Thanks Joker and Mike
I see from the Snitch that this was the easiest of the week. I thought it was the hardest! Only got 2 across clues on the first pass (Excusable and Hilarious) and NHO of Barnum. The only elements I could think of that fitted were Radium and Barium, so I decided Barnum was more likely than Radnum. Didn’t spot the hidden for Trial. Otherwise, amazingly managed to complete it.