Solving time: 11:16
I didn’t find this particularly straightforward in flight, though apart from a couple of answers (I’m looking at you 12d – which gets my COD – and 17a), I’m struggling to see what caused the hold-up. My familiarity with 21a comes only from teenage visits to the local kebab house to soak up an evening’s ale intake.
But all in all, this felt like an enjoyable challenge. Let me know what you made of it….
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | OK then, start off each spring (4,4) |
| VERY WELL – Remove first letter [start off] of |
|
| 5 | Musical work featured in Octopussy (4) |
| OPUS – Hidden in [featured in] Octopussy | |
| 9 | Heads of inquiry never permitted to return useful info (5) |
| INTEL – First letters [Heads of] I{nquiry} N{ever} then LET (permitted) reversed [to return]
Short for INTELligence |
|
| 10 | Help fool coming out of trap? (7) |
| SUCCOUR – Homophone [coming out of trap?] of SUCKER (fool) | |
| 11 | The 90th Parallel North is one good place from which to start (4,8) |
| POLE POSITION – Double definition, the first of which refers to the position of the Geographic, Terrestrial or True North Pole – the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth’s axis of rotation meets its surface | |
| 13 | Barges are ultimately slow moving around middle of harbour (6) |
| ELBOWS – Last letter [ultimately] of {ar}E then anagram [moving] of SLOW around middle letter of {har}B{our}
‘Barges’ and ‘ELBOWS’ here in a verbal context. |
|
| 15 | Mean video games company rejecting outsiders (6) |
| INTEND – Only thought of the company once all checkers were in place. NINTENDO was founded in Japan as NINTENDO Koppai as far back as 1889, originally producing handmade hanafuda playing cards. |
|
| 17 | Form of sports practice compelling misplaced anger (7,5) |
| DRIVING RANGE – DRIVING (compelling) then anagram [misplaced] of ANGER | |
| 20 | Uncivilised male withdrawing south from capital (7) |
| HEATHEN – HE (male) then ATHEN |
|
| 21 | Part of pack of takeaway meatballs (5) |
| KOFTA – Hidden [Part of] in pack of takeaway
In English, kofta is a loanword borrowed from the Urdu کوفتہ or Persian کوفته kofta meaning pounded meat. Might not be familiar to those that have not partaken of much Middle-Eastern cuisine. |
|
| 22 | Bite from flipping insect! (4) |
| TANG – GNAT (insect) after reversing [flipping] | |
| 23 | Agonised about location in California (3,5) |
| SAN DIEGO – Anagram [about] of AGONISED
The eighth most populous city in the United States with more than 1.3 million residents. |
|
| Down | |
| 1 | Very old driving licence possibly no longer valid (4) |
| VOID – V (Very) O (old) ID (driving licence possibly) | |
| 2 | Some threadbare trousers back in fashion? (5) |
| RETRO – Hidden [Some] in threadbare trousers | |
| 3 | Confusion with rowers and boxer (12) |
| WELTERWEIGHT – WELTER (Confusion) W (with) EIGHT (rowers)
WELTER is defined by one online dictionary as a large and especially badly organised number of things. I didn’t know this before coming to write this blog. |
|
| 4 | Bible reading given by the French boy (6) |
| LESSON – LES (French plural of ‘the’) SON (boy) | |
| 6 | Short bio for item in a folder (7) |
| PROFILE – PRO (for) FILE (item in a folder)
Initially, I was slightly foxed, thinking in physical terms, “Aren’t a file and a folder more or less the same thing?” However, in the virtual world (computers, tablets, mobile ‘phones etc.), files are stored in folders (e.g. for the Windows or Android operating systems – other operating systems are available). |
|
| 7 | Band occasionally breaking into calm, romantic tune (8) |
| SERENADE – Alternate letters [occasionally] of {b}A{n}D inserted into [breaking into] SERENE (calm) | |
| 8 | Hugely exciting proceedings in a court crowded with people (6-6) |
| ACTION-PACKED – ACTION (proceedings in a court) PACKED (crowded with people) | |
| 12 | Teacher’s sexy yearbook photo? (8) |
| HEADSHOT – HEAD‘S (Teacher’s) HOT (sexy) | |
| 14 | Second-rate train travelling across one country (7) |
| BRITAIN – Anagram [travelling] of B (second-rate) TRAIN across I (one) | |
| 16 | Business schedule information penned by a district attorney (6) |
| AGENDA – GEN (information) surrounded [penned] by A DA (district attorney)
From the Latin agenda, literally “things to be done,” neuter plural of agendus, gerundive of agere “to do”. Originally used in a theological sense of “matters of practice,” (as opposed to credenda “things to be believed, matters of faith,”), the modern sense of “items of business to be done at a meeting” is attested by 1882. If a singular is required (i.e. one item of the agenda) it is now agendum, the former singular agend being obsolete. |
|
| 18 | Manager almost makes mistake (5) |
| GAFFE – GAFFE From the 1580s, GAFFER is believed to be a contraction of Godfather, a respectful term extended by the 1840s to foremen and supervisors, and by the 1970s, to managers of English soccer teams. |
|
| 19 | Something folded that always comes open at the front (4) |
| TACO – Initial letters [at the front] of That Always Comes Open | |
Didn’t know the meaning of WELTER so thank you. Liked HEADSHOT once I twigged what was going on. COD to TACO.
Thanks MH and setter.
I’m another who didn’t know WELTER in that sense, but W…WEIGHT only has one weight class that I’ve ever heard of so I just bunged it in. I solved this steadily without any problems, but slowly since I was doing something else in parallel. My LOI was PROFILE. Despite using a Mac, “item in folder” didn’t immediately shout FILE (and the topic of my PhD was file systems, although in that pre-PC era, files were kept in directories).
My father (95 years young) has just commented that in his day FILEs were kept in toolboxes.
Reminds me of a joke I read in a magazine nearly 50 years ago: “Do you file your nails?” “No, I just cut them off and throw them away.”
Indeed!
Good mix of the challenging and the less challenging which took me 10.42 to complete. I was slowed at the end by GAFFE, PROFILE and LOI TACO. I took a while to get ELBOWS (I had the W and thought that was ‘ultimately slow’ so got into quite a mess) but when it emerged I thought it was a very good clue. Thanks to Jalna and Mike.
I was slow too, and needed 16 minutes to polish this one off and like our blogger I can’t see now what caused the hold-up.
I didn’t struggle with the wordplay HEAD’S HOT and that’s what got me to the answer, but then I wondered why HEADSHOT should be defined as a ‘yearbook photo’. A little research suggests this may be something specific to American college yearbooks featuring photos of individual graduates, but I think they also contain group class photos so it still seems a little loose. Perhaps a reference to passport photos might been more appropriate?
Pleased with 12:47 today as I sit here in the dark listening to the hammering South London Autumn rain self-satisfied with the fact that my time spent on the roof at the weekend seems to have paid dividends in stemming the leaks in the kitchen ceiling. A bit like this puzzle, I didn’t fully know what I was doing but it worked – having not fully parsed more than a couple of the clues it was with some trepidation that I hit submit to be greeted by all green squares.
SAN DIEGO seems to be a popular place at this time of year – I swear I have seen that clued in the last week or so.
FOI VOID
LOI and COD for its good disguise and nice definition goes to TACO.
Overall this was a fair puzzle so thanks Jalna. I’m now going to settle down with second coffee to read the rest of Mike’s blog – always enjoy the blogs when there are a couple I couldnt quite parse.
Anyway have a good day everyone – I’m working from home so won’t be setting foot out in this rubbish.
Cheers
Horners
I felt we had had San Diego as an anagram recently, and then remembered it was in a Quintagram a few days ago.
Hard work but fun as usual with Jalna. Held up at the end but not being able to see how TACO worked – so finished on a whimper after a slow start. Must have picked up pace in the middle though because all green in 16.35 is definitely in my respectability zone. Good one!
Cracking puzzle which I steadily worked my way through.
I was unaware of what existed at the 90th parallel but the clueing was generous and I found this definition of SAN DIEGO a lot more helpful than the last time it appeared. SUCCOUR clued as a homophone seems to be fashionable with setters at the moment which made it less challenging that it might have been.
Started with OPUS and finished with TACO in 8.50 with COD to HEADSHOT.
Thanks to Mike
P.S. Mike, you clearly have a more refined palate than me as I always found that a greasy donner kebab was a more effective means of alcohol absorption at the end of an evening in the pub 🤢. Fortunately those days are long gone.
I was certainly partial to the occasional doner kebab myself – a very rare ‘treat’ these days certainly 😀
Bravo for Nintendo 👏.
I was glad to see that ‘boy’ didn’t resolve to some random name.
Thanks Jalna and Mike.
If it’s one
To be done
Agendum
Dicendum
😄
9.05
A steady work-through as Plett11 says though not helped by inserting OUTRE for RETRO which neither exists as a letter string nor fits the definition, but otherwise worked, and which had me staring at V_O_ for a while.
Thought KOFTA was good
Thanks Jalna for the excellent blog as always Mike
And now we must play a video game. Nunc est Nintendum.
Heavy weather of this, plodding to 11:27 but then seeing the DPS appear (ACTION PACKDD) for a DNF. I got held up in the SW, especially by applying Cedric’s Law and trying to make an anagram out of “teacher’s” at 12d when I only had the H-T at the end.
I liked “out of trap” as a homophone indicator so that gets COD from me.
Many thanks Jalna and Mike.
Re COD I probably would have gone for that one too had but I managed to parse it.
how is out of trap a homophone indicator?
Trap is slang for mouth, so out of trap = out of mouth = spoken.
Most commonly heard as “shut your trap”
17:59 for the solve! Tough in my book and if I hadn’t seen the SUCCOUR soundalike in the last few days I might never have finished as couldn’t see ACTION PACKED without the C and while nINTENDo now seem obvious I couldn’t think past EA Sports and Atari. Also NHO welter=confusion.
I’m another who did not know that meaning of welter, but as already mentioned, there wasn’t any alternative to WELTERWEIGHT so in it went. Rest of puzzle just the right mix of chewy and doable, for a 10 minute finish.
Allow me to be the first pedant to say that agenda is now an English word, and in English it is singular, thus one can have an agenda (and if you have two of them for, say, two consecutive meetings it is perfectly correct English to say “Both agendas today are fairly short” – please please never agendae, which I did once hear someone say). The word agendum may exist in some circles but in real life the English for an item on the agenda is “agenda item” – as in “We now move to agenda item 4”.
Many thanks Mike for the blog
Cedric
First thought was SUCCOUR for 10A, but only just seen why ‘coming out of trap’ indicates a homophone- obviously very dim this morning! Some really great clues – COD POLE POSITION. Thanks Mike for your usual interesting blog.
14.02. It took me a while to get tuned into this one.
Enjoyable solve with a particular PDM at SUCCOUR, another homophone indicator to add to the mental list. Shame I can never find my mental lists when I want them however…
I was aware of Welter, but would have struggled to define it with any accuracy.
1A had me fishing around for the right phrase for too long, even having seen broadly how the clue worked. More coffee required.
Looking at some of the times posted so far from seasoned solvers, I think this can be considered something of a toughie. Although it seems quite a few are scratching their heads wondering why their times were slower than usual. Maybe this suggests the puzzle was hard but fair. I think I was reasonably sharp today to finish a few seconds under target at 9.54. Like others didn’t know the meaning of WELTER, but other than Middleweight couldn’t think of another weight division. I’ve eaten KOFTA in Istanbul so no problem recognising the hidden.
14:59, so needing a bit longer than it seemed. FOI 1dn VOID (switching to the downs after not seeing 1ac). LOI PROFILE. I liked ELBOWS but COD to POLE POSITION
Finished (and all correct! LOI HEATHEN) but what a struggle and no fewer than seven CNPs. NHO TACO or INTEL. Thank you, Mike – just TACO you haven’t underlined anything for the definition. What is a TACO – is it “folded”?
TACO is a Mexican food item – a wheat pancake folded around a filling
Ah, thank you. So that’s why I’d NHO it – one glance at that description and move swiftly on. Seem to remember the last time I was in a Mexican restaurant (Aarhus 1987) the thing to eat was chimichanga, now that was tasty.
🌮
A tough challenge, today. I got there eventually, although it probably took more than three-quarters of a hour.
No idea how I solved SUCCOUR as the clue completely baffled me, even (for some minutes) after having read the blog. WELTERWEIGHT, SERENADE, PROFILE and INTEND also had me completely stumped for a long time.
Many thanks to Jalna and Mike.
34:33
A glacial struggle to work my way through this. Problems with the short answers TANG, TACO and KOFTA. LOI INTEND.
Was looking for some sort of computer game Nina with references to Heathen, Pole Position, Intel and, of course, Nintendo, but maybe just coincidence as couldn’t see any more.
Found this a real struggle. Biffed several, unable to parse them. LOI INTEND. I blame my cold for brain fog.,
DNF.
A complete disaster.
This so called “quick cryptic” was several levels above what I am capable of.
Even reading the answers from the blog I do not see the linkages involved in getting the solutions.
I am going to stop doing these puzzles. I will leave them for the experts.
Gordon
Please don’t give up – I started on the main one about 18 months ago and the penny started to drop after reviewing blog everyday. Then discovered the quick and then eventually solved it and then solved it more consistently and then more quickly. It’s a great training ground and having only relatively recently started posting here, it’s a collegiate vibe. Keep at it mate – I think on the stats this one wasn’t that easy.
10:28
I got breezeblocked on the crossing pair succour and profile.
COD headshot.
18:49 so a bit slow for me. I wondered about classing Britain as a country, but, on reflection, decided it could refer to Ancient Britain. Joint COD to Pole Position and headshot (though my old headmaster certainly wasn’t!!)
A smidge under 15. Put Gnat in and couldn’t get to Britain (what’s that you say Mr Lammy?) I also didn’t know agenda was Latin for To Do List. Won’t be calling any managerial educationalists hotheads any time soon.
Nice mental workout thank you Jalna and Mike
An enjoyable plod around the grid today. Held up by WELTERWEIGHT (I’d never heard of that meaning of welter), BRITAIN (PDM, doh), and LOI POLE POSITION (had to look up what 90th parallel was). Liked SUCCOUR for the unusual homophone indicator, and KOFTA for the nostalgia. Many thanks Mike and Jalna.
Dnf…
I found this tricky. I had most of the grid after 30 mins, but was struggling on 10ac “Succour” (which I eventually got) and 20ac “Heathen” (which I didn’t). The latter I’m now kicking myself over, as it was definitely solvable, even if it wasn’t the first thing that came to mind when thinking of “uncivilised”.
FOI – 5ac “Opus”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 15ac “Intend” – did try and shoehorn Atari in there somewhere until I saw the light.
Thanks as usual!
Took well over 20mins (paper and pen today so can’t say exactly) but like our blogger on reflection and review can’t define exactly why – I guess the pieces just weren’t clicking together this morning, wasn’t familiar with the 90th parallel significance I’m afraid but all of the others should have been more accessible than they were.
11:15
FOI OPUS, but still LOI was PROFILE as I couldn’t see the homophone indicator in SUCCOUR for ages.
Definitely on the tricky side but ultimately satisfying.
Thanks Jalna and Mike.
Really struggled with this, and initially decided give up and pull stumps at the 25min mark, with Headshot (trying to get BEd in somewhere)/Heathen and the Succour/Profile/Action Packed trio extant. A coffee and a read of the paper later, I picked it up again and this time saw Action Packed straight away, with Succour and Profile following in reasonably quick order. Heathen still took some working out, as uncivilised seemed a bit of a stretch but I see it’s in the dictionary. Loi and CoD Headshot was then suddenly a lot easier. Overall, however, a tough 35+min solve. Invariant
I had huge problems in the NE corner with SUCCOUR, INTEND, PROFILE and ACTION PACKED. With 14 mins on the clock I still hadn’t solved INTEND and gave up. I thought mean was probably the definition but was looking for a word that meant either average or unkind. WELTER = confusion was a guess.
Started quickly but found the last few much trickier. Eventually got to the line in 22 minutes. I couldn’t parse ELBOWS or HEATHEN and didn’t understand the homophone indicator for SUCCOUR (still don’t really).
FOI – 5ac OPUS
LOI – 19dn TACO (must have spent at least 4 minutes doing an alphabet trawl before seeing what was going on)
COD – 15ac INTEND
Thanks to Jalna and Mike
“Trap” is slang for mouth (“shut your trap”). So “coming out of trap” = something said.
As others, I found this an excellent puzzle but had to work hard to get to the end.
15 minutes, LOI TANG after failing to see BRITAIN for a long time.
DNK KOFTA but it felt right.
In America Taco Bell is very well known; I remember their adverts. They seem to be in the UK now too.
Hard to pick a COD; I’ll go with ELBOWS.
David
I’ve now got the Opal Fruits ditty – Fresh with the Tang of Citrus etc – running through my head.
I found this quite tricky, but managed to come in a few seconds under target. Took me ages to see the hidden KOFTA, my LOI. HEATHEN, HEADSHOT and VERY WELL also held me up. No problem with WELTERWEIGHT. FOI was RETRO. 9:46. Thanks Jalna and Mike.
I used to be miffed if I went over 10 mins for the QC but these days I do that quite regularly. I put it down to senescence rather than an increase in difficulty. I was therefore chuffed to finish in 6:31 today. A steady solve with nothing outside my GK.
Pretty difficult. DNF as I had to look up Barges in CCD to get ELBOWS, and Mean to get INTEND.
But enjoyed it more or less.
Other LOIs included HEADSHOT, TACO, and BRITAIN (doh!)
Liked the boxer and POLE POSITION. Saw that SUCCOUR was a homophone, but failed to twig ‘out of trap’. Also liked LESSON, SERENADE and GAFFE.
Thanks vm, Mike. Very thorough blog.
20.15 with no errors. My second visit to the SCC this week. I too took too long with ACTION PACKED, DRIVING RANGE, PROFILE AND LOI/COD – SUCCOUR. FOI – OPUS. I always find Jalna’s puzzles challenging so pleased to finish this even though I just missed my back-up target of 20 minutes (my primary target is 13:23 as this scores 700 points). Thanks Jalna and Mike.
I did not get Britain as I was trying to find a word for second rate, but Britain answers both country and second rate 😄
Now, now, Tim, let’s keep things civil!
12:07
LOI TACO,
COD HEADSHOT
SAN DIEGO appeared in the 15×15 a few days ago, so that went in quick.
I though the clue for POLE POSITION was more complex than necessary, rather than “90th parallel North is one”, just say “90th parallel” which is a tidy definition for either pole. For a much trickier one, Jalna could have used “90 degrees” and we would have been thinking of right angles.
NHO KOFTA
15:30. Happy with that result as I thought is was quite tough – and I wasn’t rushing (mostly trying not to cry as I ate a rather spicy late lunch, not of TACOS though).
COD has to go to HEADSHOT, looked risqué at first!
Good level of difficulty today, thank you both.
14:53, all done but with a typo on VERY WLLL. But I’ll count that as a win. COD to KOFTA, although I can only remember seeing it as kofte, which may be the plural.
Thanks to Jalna and Mike.
13:20
Breezeblocked by TACO. Solved all but TACO this morning, but could not see the answer. Paused and came back to it after a gap of eight hours, and suddenly it was obvious. Clearly I eat more Middle Eastern food than Mexican food.
COD to POLE POSITION.
Thanks Mike and Jalna
I struggled on this one. Answers like headshot and pole position should have been obvious, but it took me a while to see them. I NHO kofta, but it was an obvious answer for an experienced solver. Not my best solve, but I did finish.
Time: 12:58
We found this very difficult, with trouble with many clues. perhaps we are showing our age.
13.56 Held up at the end by BRITISH, WELTERWEIGHT, ELBOWS, HEATHEN and HEADSHOT, all of which nicely misled me. This meaning of welter was new to me. Thanks Mike and Jalna.
Another where I am grateful for the blog. Vague recollection now of having come across welter in the past but at the time it went in with a shrug as it had to be. SUCCOUR was a biff: totally missed the homophone, clever when it’s pointed out to you. POI OPUS – ‘is there a musical called Puss? Were there 8 cats in Cats, is that it? Let’s look at 6d again. Ah, yes PROFILE. 🤦’ Should have been FOI, like others! Compounded by LOI TACO, just didn’t see the initial letters. 🤦🤦 Fortunately Mrs T was able to break the impasse by divining what ‘something folded’ might be. Lucky to get through in 14:03 really, it felt like we were staring a DNF in the face at one point! Thanks to Mike and Jalna.
Struggled with this. Enjoyable even though it was a dnf.
Thanks for the blog.
12:22 I enjoyed out of trap leading to SUCCOUR. I didn’t think of BRITAIN as a country or elbows being equivalent to barges. Originally thinking WELL WELL and OUTRE slowed me down some!