Bit of a tricky one today, I found.
I only managed four acrosses after a first pass (8, 9, 12, 23), and it remained something of a piecemeal solve right to the end as I kept hopping around the grid. I came home in 9:23, not far off the last two days combined – nothing of obscurity, just good clueing. Lovely stuff – many thanks to Joker!
Across | |
1 | Change around tempo for sometimes high instrument? (9) |
ALTIMETER – ALTER (change) aroud TIME (tempo). “Sometimes” because it isn’t “high” during take off and landing (or indeed while hedge-hopping, or doing a spot of strafing). I was slow getting this, imagining some improbable instrument like an altocello. | |
6 | Pub is empty after last one leaves (3) |
BAR – BARE (empty) after last one leaves | |
8 | Caught recent rattling noise (7) |
CLATTER – C (Caught in cricket) LATTER (recent) | |
9 | Promised a choice of three directions (5) |
SWORN – S(outh) W(est) OR N(orth) are our three necessary choices | |
10 | Coldness trendy ahead of argument (12) |
INDIFFERENCE – IN (trendy) DIFFERENCE (argument) | |
12 | Worker has loud complaint (4) |
BEEF – BEE ( worker) F (forte = loud) | |
13 | Take a seat in which one may find rest (4) |
EASE – takE A SEat “in which one may find” the answer | |
17 | Consulted her about lingerie (12) |
UNDERCLOTHES – anagram (about) of CONSULTED HER. A carelessly biffed ROUBLE at 15d meant I had some form of lingerie starting with an O, and was wondering what kind of sheltered life I’d been living. | |
20 | A block needs turning in light wood (5) |
BALSA – A SLAB (a block) “needs turning” = reverse | |
21 | A Tale of Two Cities one’s abandoned (7) |
ROMANCE – our two cities are ROMA and NICE, the latter abandoning the I (one) | |
23 | The day before is not entirely smooth (3) |
EVE – EVEN (smooth) “not entirely” | |
24 | Chest many designed for sailors (9) |
YACHTSMEN – anagram (designed) of CHEST MANY |
Down | |
1 | Demonstrate removing mass for bridging structure (4) |
ARCH – MARCH (demonstrate) removing M(ass) | |
2 | Student taking shower in slip-on garment (7) |
TRAINEE – RAIN (shower) in TEE (slip-on garment) | |
3 | Almost the ultimate check carpet (3) |
MAT – MATE (ultimate check in chess) “almost” | |
4 | Slight disagreement limiting a king’s list of duties (6) |
TARIFF – TIFF (slight disagreement) limiting A R (Rex = king) | |
5 | Broadcast rerun gets revived (9) |
RESURGENT – anagram (broadcast) of RERUN GETS | |
6 | Brother to acknowledge prime minister (5) |
BROWN – BR. (brother) OWN (acknowledge) | |
7 | Park keeper managed to get over bug mostly (6) |
RANGER – RAN (managed) going over/above GERM (bug) “mostly” | |
11 | Hospital home with tree given by former queen (9) |
INFIRMARY – IN (home) with FIR (tree) given by MARY (former queen) | |
14 | Bone in back and middle of rump (7) |
STERNUM – STERN (back) and UM (“middle” of rUMp) | |
15 | Russian’s ready to import British debris (6) |
RUBBLE – RUBLE (Russian’s ready) to import B(ritish) | |
16 | Archbishop, perhaps large chap under cape (6) |
CLERIC – L(arge) ERIC (chap) under C(ape) | |
18 | What dwarves do captured by wood elves (5) |
DELVE – “captured” by wooD ELVEs | |
19 | Tight chap is grabbing everything initially (4) |
MEAN – MAN (chap) is grabbing E(verything) “initially” | |
22 | Encountered yours truly on top of tram (3) |
MET – ME (yours truly) on T (“top” of Tram) |
16:21 Certainly a tricky one. Very hard to get a foothold.
Lots of Joker jokes “ultimate check” for MATE, “high instrument” for ALTIMETER, “Russians ready” for ROUBLE.
And misdirection such as the C + RECENT which wasn’t an anagram.
I didn’t see the second city in ROMANCE as I had the first one as ROME. When did we start using foreign names for cities?
COD SWORN
Reminds me of the semi-educated person who kept telling people off for not pronouncing Munich ‘properly’ as the Germans did, with a Scottish-style ‘ch’ sound, as in ‘loch.’
Except the Gemans don’t pronounce it with a Scottish-style ‘ch’ sound.
That’s why he was semi educated..
Another carelessly biffed ‘rouble.’ Definitely on the trickier side, anyway.
9:01
12 minutes. Double ROUBLE trouble here.
Foreign names of cities / countries are nearly always indicated in the 15×15 so I’d certainly expect it in a Quick Cryptic. Also, although it’s true that A Tale of Two Cities does feature a love story between Lucie Manette and Charles Darnay, it’s first and foremost a historical novel, not a ROMANCE.
I wondered about dwarves and delving and whether any association had more to do with the Brothers Grimm or perhaps Disney (Heigh -Ho – We dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, dig, In our mine the whole day through…) but apparently it’s rooted in Norse and Germanic folklore. Dwarves are often portrayed as skilled miners and craftsmen who live deep underground, delving into the earth to extract precious metals and minerals.
I read it to be romance in the literary sense of the word rather than suggesting it was a love story.
Double rouble trouble – very good 😉
But the word “Romance” has nothing to do with the novel “A Tale of Two Cities”. The definition part of the clue is “A Tale”. “of Two Cities” is the wordplay. So not relevant whether A Tale of Two Cities is a romance or not. Romance is “A Tale”, which is surely acceptable?
Thanks, that makes sense, if perhaps a little advanced for a QC given the lack of indicator for the foreign spelling. But heigh-ho, QC setters need to have space to push the boundaries occasionally.
I wondered about ‘a tale of two ‘ for the definition? Can ‘two’ do double duty?
Which makes it even less QC-ish, I know …
Thanks Joker and roltoly. On the tricky side. 16D chap is Eric, named after my favourite comedian. Outside of crosswordland does anyone use beef anymore as an argument?
I refer my learned friend to the oeuvre of 50 cent, for example this from “life’s on the line” – “Beef u don’t want none so don’t start none”
My two girls, 17 and 15 regularly talk about some friend or other at school “having beef”, so the word may be making, or perhaps has made, a comeback. Although the “yoof” slang changes so regularly that it could very well be a fleeting reentry into common parlance.
FWIW I hear beef consistently used as slang for an argument. There’s also a multiple Emmy Award-winning show called Beef which has aired the last couple of years [which begins with a road rage incident].
Thanks – well spotted on the Eric/Alec front, will make a late edit.
8.14. Required a bit of teasing out, but very good clueing.
This took a while to get started, finally getting bar as FOI. Once we got going it was a steady clockwise solve finishing in the NW with trainee having spen too long with ant as the worker.
Another morning with a Mrs RH super biff. For 10a I said trendy is IN and she said “oh so something like indifference”? Clang!
Thanks Joker, COD to sworn, and thanks Roly.
CLERIC took a while to parse as I couldn’t see why C stood for Cape until the Good Hope dropped.
I found this tricky and had trouble trying to get my brain into the right gear. 30 mins. Club door is open, I take my usual seat. Thanks Joker and Roly
Middling difficulty for me with a lot to enjoy along the way.
I let out a sigh of relief when the penny dropped at 1a and I realised that I wasn’t looking for an obscure musical instrument.
Started with BAR and finished with BROWN (which I had trouble parsing until I saw that brother didn’t = ‘bro’) in 8.00 with COD to SWORN.
Thanks to rolytoly
P.S. I think you might have the wrong chap in CLERIC
A not so smart Alec
Eric’s feeling ignored!
When I was young my brother and I had two godfathers, one was Eric and one was Alec. I hardly ever met them so the two names have always been linked in my brain.
Yes I could see that! I have no such excuse on the Eric/Alec front.
I have followed Steakcity into the SCC, happy with an enjoyable wrestle with Joker’s clever clues. SWORN is a great construction. A bit of a saucy feel elsewhere with the lingerie and the student in the wet T shirt competition. No wonder there was ROMANCE in the air!
Stupidly failed to see INDIFFERENCE, but not so cross with myself over my other failure TARIFF; is that a list of duties? I thought it was a list of prices. Liked clever surface for UNDERCLOTHES. CNP ROMANCE, we have ROME with ANC inside it, couldn’t make that “nearly” a second city, not convinced by use of ROMA. Thanks, Roly.
A list of prices, but that covers of taxes (duties) if you are importing goods.
Thanks – I see – yes you’re right of course.
How about ANChorage Alaska, that’s “nearly” right. Then we can have the proper spelling of ROME.
Love it, Merlin – well done!
Is “abandoned” valid as a “truncate” indicator?
(The clue is “… Two Cities one’s abandoned” i.e. take any Is out)
(N)anc(y)?
Got there, albeit slowly. Could not parse BROWN as I couldn’t see past either B or BRO for brother, and therefore couldn’t see how either ROWN or WN could be an acknowledgment. Dope.
Despite Christmas party duties last night, resulting in feeling slightly jaded this morning, that clicked together nicely and I was home and hosed in 07:05. COD to RUBBLE. Lots of clever tricks from the funny man today.
Many thanks Joker and roly.
16:20 for the solve! Joker started 2024 as my fave setter but is now out of my top 3 which I feel sad about. They used to provide relatively simpler clueing with surfaces that made me laugh and that seems to have disappeared as the year has gone on.
Clueing TARIFF as a “list of duties” or UNDERCLOTHES as “lingerie” examples of where we’re having to dig to the 4th or 5th definition rather than it being relatively obvious which puts the Q in QC. Thought MAT was a hidden word in “ultiMATe” and couldn’t figure out the two random cities of ROMANCE (LOI).
How else would you define Lingerie??
Bra, panties, camisole …
“Just putting my underclothes on for our romantic night in darling” said no-one ever.
I was another one who put rouble in for 15dn and didn’t give it a second thought until I couldn’t get 17ac as I had it beginning with an O. Nine minutes had elapsed with just this one to do, and for over two minutes I couldn’t make sense of it. I finally read 15dn more carefully and RUBBLE went in followed swiftly by the now obvious UNDERCLOTHES. What should have been a nine minute solve turned into 11.28. The Joker has the last laugh yet again.
11:52 (Archbishop of Canterbury forced into exile after refusing to crown Eustace, son of King Stephen)
I fell into the same traps as others, including biffing ROUBLE which slowed down the UNDERCLOTHES, and looking for an obscure musical instrument starting with ALTO.
A colleague of mine always used to be very amused by the fact that BALSA is technically a hardwood.
Thanks Roly and Joker
Wholly off wavelength here, and struggled mightily to a not-enjoyed 17 minute completion, only to find One Pink Square for ChATTER. I swear it was a fat finger m’lud, but having spent ages trying to make an anagram of C+RECENT from “recent, rattling” (reader, there aren’t any) I strongly suspect I just put in the first word I could think of that vaguely fitted.
Other holdups included (but were far from limited to) thinking the currency of Russia is the Rouble (not sure where the spelling ruble comes from), not expecting Rome to be Roma, a complete mis-parsing of MAT (I missed the chess analogy completely and thought it must be a hidden in ultiMATe), a blindspot over Tee (I spell it T-shirt and am not familiar with Tee), and taking ages to unravel UNDERCLOTHES, a word I would not myself use as I’d call the aforementioned items underwear.
So not my best effort. Many thanks Roly for the blog.
Cedric
Over 30 minutes to sort out this very tricky puzzle. Biffed a few (and rebuffed a couple!), so thanks to rolytoly for the explanations.
10:37
My experience was very similar to that of our blogger – almost nothing on a first pass through; also wanted there to be a musical alto-something; also smashed in ROUBLE…
Thanks setter and blogger
Found this quite a struggle with many biffed then worked out the parsing afterwards. It seemed strange to use the Italian spelling of Rome in ROMANCE. Thought MAT was a hidden in ULTIMATE, but obviously chess reference is the correct one. COD SWORN. Thanks Roly and Joker.
19 minutes. I made heavy weather of this one. Struggled with eg TARIFF and ROMANCE – ROMA? you must be joking, Joker – and I even thought we must have had a PM called BROOK (BRO/OK) which didn’t help. But I didn’t fall for ROUBLE so RUBBLE is my COD
I like QCs with clever wordplay so I had no real problems today other than trying to make an anagram of ‘recent’ and a biffed and corrected RouBLE. From BAR to BROWN in 6:52.
Some tricky but also some very clever clues taking 28 minutes to finish.
Originally had BAROMETER FOR 1a but couldn’t parse it. Needed the crossers for ROMANCE.
COD to SWORN and also liked BROWN
Enjoyed the blog
Was I the only person who first put the equally justified SWORE for 9a? I only realised my mistake once I worked out that 7d had to be RANGER.
I did that too, and I can’t see that it doesn’t fit the clue just as well? Promised as a verb works for SWORE surely?
Agreed. Which is why I struggled with RANGER
There would be absolutely no point in a lady wearing lingerie if she were to treat it as underclothes. I found this puzzle very unsatisfying.
FOI SWORN
LOI EASE
COD RESURGENT
TIME 4:53
Pretty undies
Are like Sundays
Their purpose is not served
If they are not observed
Very good
12.04 I did Saturday’s prize crossword last night and one of the clues is very similar to one of these. I still struggled with it today. Anyway, this was a nice challenge. I started very slowly but picked up pace. LOI TRAINEE. Thanks rolytoly and Joker.
From ARCH to DELVE in 7:38. Found bottom half trickier than top half. Thanks Joker and Roly.
15d Rubble. I always spell the Russian money Rouble but there is precedent for Ruble.
Some tricky but nice content today. SWORN was a lovely clue. BROWN I couldn’t correctly parse at all because I hear people say “bro” all the time and WN just made no sense to me.
I also need to remember that workers are bees as well as ants, but I certainly have no ANTF with the setter over this one.
One of our better times though needed the blog to see some of the wordplay. Liked tale of two cities.
Did this after a mammoth drive from Melbourne to coastal NSW and managed it in 10.22, except for an inexplicable altOmeter which wrecked everything. Thanks both, nice puzzle and now I know what was going on with ROMANTIC.
Just the right level for me, completed but took some working through. BROWN appeared to fit but “own” = “acknowledge “? COD ROMANCE.P
Own up to what you did ?
A pleasing 22min solve allowed me to settle into a well-used window seat, only to be turfed out by the ticket inspector a few minutes later when my Resurrect/Resurgent blunder came to light. If it doesn’t parse. . . Lots of clever surfaces today, so it’s hard to pick a CoD, but I think 9ac, Sworn, just has the edge over loi Romance. Invariant
Filled up the grid slowly but surely. Last two in were SWORN (biffed then parsed) followed by LOI BROWN which went in with fingers crossed. Struggled to solve CLERIC (don’t remember seeing C = cape before) and ROMANCE, both of which I really liked once the penny had dropped. Puzzled over RUBBLE as I’m more familiar with rouble, but followed the rest of the wordplay. Had several options for MEAN before belatedly hitting on the most apt. Never did see the hidden EASE 🙄 This was a good challenge for me at my current level and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for the blog roly.
Completed on flight to Dublin – so probably 35 minutes.
Couldn’t spell Altimeter (put it as altometer) and wondered how the clue worked.
Another chatter!
Thanks all
John
25 mins…
Got nothing in the NW corner on first pass and only 7dn “Ranger” went in after a lot of scrabbling around. The rest went in steadily, although I got stuck for an age on 8ac “Clatter” and 3dn “Mat”. Pleased I finished, but it felt like hard work.
FOI – 7dn “Ranger”
LOI – 3dn “Mat”
COD – 15dn “Rubble”
Thanks as usual!
28:42
Yep, that was tough going. Struggled with a noise that was C_A___R and put CLAMOUR. But finally figured out MAT which unlocked LOI CLATTER.
Apart from spelling Altimeter with an O (thinking Tome was something to do with Tempo!) all completed in a satisfying 25 minutes.
Thank you Joker for a fun puzzle and for Roly for explaining it all.
10:05. “When dwarves delved and elves span
Who was then the gentleman?”
Adam delved and Eve span?
Yes, I’d always only connected “delved” with the lines about Adam and Eve so when this clue mentioned dwarves I wondered if I’d misremembered!
Made heavy weather again but got there eventually, after a long struggle. LOsI 1a, 1d, 2d.
Yes, had to rub out Rouble when UNDERCLOTHES became obvious. The word lingerie is only used in shops, by the way.
Failed to parse ROMANCE but took it to mean the classical sense of the word, so biffed. Others unparsed: TRAINEE (Tee? Slip-on), CLERIC. Blogger, you mean ERIC not Alec.
No problem w 4d because of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Phew, exhausted. Thanks for much needed blog, Roly.
6:42
Some bits missed along the way – had SWORE in from the first pass of acrosses, which survived until I couldn’t solve LOI 7d, then twigged N rather than E. Pleased that DELVE was a hidden otherwise I am not sure I would have got it as easily.
Failed to work out what the second city was – I was thinking ROME rather than ROMA for the first – bunged in the answer and moved on.
Thanks Roly and Joker
Slow to start with and continued in that mode all the way through to the end in a very sluggish 29 minutes. I now find Joker the most challenging setter whereas previously I had no especial problems with his puzzles.
FOI – 12ac BEEF
LOI – 17ac UNDERCLOTHES
COD – 9ac SWORN
Thanks to Joker and Rolytoly
I agree – he’s definitely upped his game over the last couple of years.
17:22 here, doing my bit to increase the ‘average time taken’ statistic as usual. The only one I didn’t parse was BAR, where I overthought it and was looking to remove “one” from something. Sigh. COD to SWORN by a nose from MAT.
Thanks to Joker and rolytoly.
Found this hard. Used a synonym finder. Even with this took over an hour. Looking back, there was nothing too outlandish.
Several times I spent ages trying to solve the clue, having picked on the wrong word as the definition. That definitely slowed me down.
Thanks to setter and rolytoly.
Top half unfinished , we found this difficult.
11 minutes of fun – liked the cluing for ROMANCE and the surface of UNDERCLOTHES.
Six with no buffs. I’m ok with that being as it was a little bit testing for some of you.
13m
Didn’t find too difficult, but biffing Rouble at 15 down meant underclothes took longer than it should.
COD Underclothes. Smithy consulting Stacy in M&S in Gavin and Stacy.
I warmed up for this with a 40-ish minute almost-solve of yesterday’s Orpheus, which I hadn’t got to as I spent much of yesterday sorting out a puncture that Mrs Random sustained when she hit a very nasty pothole first thing in the morning.
Correction: it was Mrs R’s car that sustained the puncture, not Mrs R herself.
It was a technical DNF as I forgot to go back and re-evaluate my biffed OUTcaSTS, for OUTPOSTS. A tricky puzzle, I thought.
As for today …. well, it was a very similar experience for me. Roughly 40 minutes again, involving some quick bursts interspersed with several extended periods of total blankness. The main difference was that I did finish today’s puzzle, despite not being able to parse MAT and ROMANCE. Strange that MAT caused me a problem, given that I play chess and that I have been following the world championship match for the past 18 days. It came to a conclusion in dramatic style today.
Many thanks to Orpheus and Mike H (yesterday) and to Joker and Rolytoly (today).
Whew, glad Mrs R is ok!
34:25 for no particular reason other than not being able (willing?) to think. Loved SWORN, so so good.
Re “lingerie”, I dissent, while admiring the clever rhyme. If I visit target.com and ask to see “lingerie” I can easily find “Women’s Plaid Print Cotton Stretch Boxer Briefs” which are by no stretch of the imagination seductive.
Thanks Joker and rolytoly!
Tell me that if Keira Knightley came up to you wearing only “Women’s Plaid Print Cotton Stretch Boxer Briefs” you wouldn’t be seduced …
Not by the briefs though 🤣 (even allowing for a switch in sexual orientation!)
🤣
(Apologies for my indiscretion)
Back to normal, but at least it wasn’t a DNF, so the rule didn’t entirely come into play! Just like our blogger, I dotted around the grid, finishing in 10:45 – also just a bit under the combined times of the last two days!
Definitely a bit trickier but I enjoyed it a lot – there are so many great surfaces today. BAR, SWORN and CLERIC all got ticks. I realise now that I didn’t parse ROMANCE or 4d TARIFF fully – I didn’t clock the Italian spelling of their capital or that the list of duties were taxes. I still like the clues though, especially 4d now I understand it better!
FOI Bar LOI Ease (those pesky hiddens) COD Romance
Many thanks Joker and Roly