Solving time: 6:09
Gentle Jimmy serves up a puzzle that should be within everybody’s definition of a QC. About half of the acrosses went in first time, with the downs contributing significantly enough to complete the grid without too much trouble.
I particularly liked 1d for its definition, 17a has been seen around these parts recently enough to be in our short-term memories, and I was surprised to learn that the model of car mentioned in 12d is still being manufactured. 20a always reminds me of Alan Bennett….
How did you all get on?
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | Home for French people, with their pet and their drink (7) |
| CHATEAU – CHAT (a pet belonging to French people i.e. a cat) EAU (a drink for French people i.e. water) | |
| 5 | Infrared screens not seen very often (4) |
| RARE – Hidden by [screens] Infrared | |
| 7 | Perhaps nosy learner follows explorers of space (5) |
| NASAL – L (learner) following NASA (explorers of space) | |
| 8 | Wonderful choice when ordering a pizza (7) |
| TOPPING – Double definition
Capricciosa, Fiorentina or Veneziana for me |
|
| 10 | Marines protecting India’s border (3) |
| RIM – RM (Royal Marines) containing [protecting] I (India – NATO phonetic alphabet)
The Corps of Royal Marines is the United Kingdom’s amphibious, special operations capable, commando force, one of the five fighting arms of the Royal Navy. |
|
| 11 | Destructive compulsion from extremists in party leading country (9) |
| PYROMANIA – Extremists i.e. the first and last letters of P{art}Y leading ROMANIA | |
| 13 | Scoundrel that is holding diamonds? This person holds clubs (6) |
| CADDIE – CAD (Scoundrel) IE (that is – id est) containing [holding] D (diamonds) | |
| 14 | Darren failing in task (6) |
| ERRAND – Anagram [failing] of DARREN | |
| 17 | Gin and tonic drunk by Oscar in disguise (9) |
| INCOGNITO – Anagram [drunk] of GIN and TONIC next to [by] O (Oscar – NATO phonetic alphabet) | |
| 19 | Drink and drive from here, by the sound of it? (3) |
| TEA – Homophone [by the sound of it] of TEE (drive from here… on a golfcourse) | |
| 20 | Refusal by wife to enter affluent city (7) |
| NORWICH – NO (Refusal) next to [by] W (wife) inserted into [to enter] RICH (affluent) | |
| 22 | Start working with firm (5) |
| ONSET – ON (working) with SET (firm) | |
| 23 | Leads of terriers you petted, exceptionally kind (4) |
| TYPE – First letters of [Leads of] T{erriers} Y{ou} P{etted} E{xceptionally} | |
| 24 | Individual cutting ripe bananas is an innovator (7) |
| PIONEER – ONE (Individual) inserted into [cutting] anagram [bananas] of RIPE | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Tory pamphlet regularly disowns part of Labour (11) |
| CONTRACTION – CON (Tory) TRACT (pamphlet) then alternate letters of {d}I{s}O{w}N{s}
Labour = the process of giving birth |
|
| 2 | Supposed fool gets extremely embarrassed about hesitant remark (7) |
| ASSUMED – ASS (fool) then end letters [extremely] of E{mbarrasse}D around [about] UM (hesitant remark) | |
| 3 | Concealing some YouTube clips ingeniously (9) |
| ECLIPSING – Hidden [some] in YouTube clips ingeniously | |
| 4 | Parking during 180-degree spin in vehicle shows improvement (6) |
| UPTURN – P (Parking) inserted into [during] U-TURN (180-degree spin in vehicle) | |
| 5 | Agent responds, overlooking false statements (3) |
| REP – REP |
|
| 6 | What monarchs do in inclement weather, we’re told (5) |
| REIGN – Homophone [we’re told] of RAIN (inclement weather) | |
| 9 | At sea, mad stranger’s an expert on board (11) |
| GRANDMASTER – Anagram [At sea] of MAD STRANGER
Board refers to chessboard |
|
| 12 | Traveller lifted stuff on top of old Volkswagen (5,4) |
| MARCO POLO – Reversal [lifted – apposite as this is a down clue] of CRAM (stuff) on top of O (old) POLO (Volkswagen)
The Volkswagen Polo is celebrating fifty years since it was first manufactured in 1975 |
|
| 15 | Endless parties entertaining street performer (7) |
| ARTISTE – {p}ARTIE{s} [endless i.e. remove end letters] containing [entertaining] ST (street) | |
| 16 | Participant in chess game’s blunder over pawn (6) |
| BISHOP – BISH (blunder) O (over – cricket abbreviation) P (pawn – chess abbreviation) | |
| 18 | Bear’s track behind vehicle (5) |
| CARRY – RY (track i.e. abbreviation for railway) behind CAR (vehicle) | |
| 21 | Periodically ignored fierce fury (3) |
| IRE – Alternate letters [Periodically ignore] of {f}I{e}R{c}E | |
Pretty straightforward offering today. Only holdups were 1d, CONTRACTION thinking I was looking for labour as in work rather than the labour ward kind, but the penny finally dropped although I was unfamiliar with tract as pamphlet. 9d, had me thinking of something nautical at first having seen the ending with master. 20a, NORWICH from the wordplay. COD to 24a, PIONEER.
Thanks M and setter
Yes, pretty easy – assuming you know French, that is. I saw everything pretty quickly, and ended up biffing eclipsing without seeing the hidden – up until then, I had been working the cryptics pretty hard.
Time: 6:09
10.51, held up at the end by BISHOP (only vaguely heard of bish) and NORWICH. For some reason I was slow to get going with the acrosses, though looking back I can’t see why. Otherwise reasonably straightforward and a nicely-pitched QC as Mike said. But one query, following on from Merlin’s remarks yesterday about the ‘on’ in PROMONTORY. Is it OK to use ‘behind’ as a positional indicator for a down clue, as in 18dn CARRY? I ask because these things are frequently a mystery to me.
Some crossword purists hold that all clues should work in isolation and the position of the answer in the grid should be of no account. Nevertheless undoubtedly setters do sometimes make use of position, especially in Down clues with part of the answer sitting ‘on’ or ‘under’ another part. And as we know, The Times has a convention by which ‘on’ used as a placement indicator in an Across clue has a specific interpretation which doesn’t translate to a Down answer. Best advice might be to adopt a flexible approach.
In 18dn the clue works in isolation with ‘behind’ indicating ‘after’ as the letters of a word would normally be written. Having worked out the answer, it simply goes into the grid in its allotted position.
9 minutes today.
Yes, definitely OK to use ‘behind’ as positional indicator imo. I look at it as , build the answer first, and then if there is any additional direction due to it being a down clue, then apply. It can be that the positional indicator is already the ‘down clue’ indicator, or that there is no ‘down clue’ indicator at all, as here.
Raced to nine on the first pass of acrosses but mostly in the bottom half. The sight of the word ‘blunder’ in the clue made me have to show extraordinary restraint not to whack in ‘mishap’ to fit the checkers and fill the space where BISHOP ended up. Enjoyed CHATEAU when I finally saw how it worked, was surprised ECLIPSING kept itself so well hidden and was just slow on PYROMANIA. All green in a fully absorbed 12.11.
Lovely puzzle with some really smooth surfaces. COD to chateau which we saw straight away from good start enabling us to complete the LHS in a lightning 5 minutes or so. Bishop was unparsed as NHO bish (thanks Mike) but seemed the obvious answer.
Slowed down a bit until the final pair of rep and rare (very well hidden, spent too long looking for words with IR at the ends!) took 2 minutes of our 16.15, quick for us. Thanks Jimmy
A strange solve in that I spent a couple of minutes at the start staring blankly at the screen unable to make sense of any of the clues. Then once RIM went in the rest all followed in a hurry, finishing with BISHOP where, like Mendesest, I managed to avoid the temptation to bung in ‘mishap’ in 7.19.
Thanks to Mike
exactly same for me – thought I was in for a tough one unable to solve the first 5 or so I read and was a couple of minutes in then having found FOI RARE and then REIGN puzzle became a write in working my way round clockwise from NE to finish with LOI ECLIPSING. All green in 7:32 in the end
11:05 for a gentler puzzle than some recently. Would have been faster but I had bADDIE at 13a until CONTRACTION put that right. No I can’t make it parse either, so not sure why I thought it was right.
Many thanks Mike for the blog
Cedric
19:11 for the solve. Easily my slowest on the Jimmy puzzles. Particularly held up at the end by RARE/REP/TOPPING – the last of which I didn’t like along with BISH, never met anyone who has ever used either word. Also held up by trying to put ASTAIRE in for ARTISTE which blocked ONSET but that’s on me.
I can’t help feeling the QC is more often than not a scaled down 15×15 – which is a valid interpretation of “quick” but not the one I’m looking for. Yet again I’m over 15mins – 25th time in last 30 puzzles.
Those complaints aside, Jimmy’s clues continue to be of an excellent quality. Particularly liked the misdirections of Labour in CONTRACTION and the card game for CADDIE.
09:29. Couldn’t get the Times CC app to work this morning on the so had to do it the old fashioned way. Luckily seemed all to go in fairly smoothly, certainly easier.
I liked NORWICH, particularly as writing it in all caps reminded me of the wartime acronyms found on the back of envelopes. Maybe we’ll get EDINBURGH next?
BURMA and EGYPT also possible!
Had to look these up. I only know of HOLLAND and SWALK which are rather tame in comparison.
Gentle, yes, at 15:39. Thanks Jimmy and Mike. The Golf came out about the same time as the Polo, replacing VW’s old best seller. I couldn’t stuff Marco Beetle in there.
Agree with Mike that this was a perfectly pitched puzzle with plenty of wordplay and misdirection to keep us on our toes. 32 minutes.
Thanks for explaining REP. I need to look out for these ‘take away’ clues in future as they often fool me.
Also NHO ‘bish’ but it was not hard to solve.
Thanks Mike and Jimmy.
My station car is an old Polo but I still got hung up on mondo or mango! The other delays were for NASAL (very good) and CONTRACTION (even better, COD from me).
Apart from that plain enough sailing through another top rate puzzle from Jimmy, for 06:25 and a Very Good Day.
Many thanks Jimmy and Mike.
PS the BISHOP of NORWICH plays a famous part at dinner tables https://www.taylor.pt/en/enjoy-port-wine/traditions/the-bishop-of-norwich but I couldn’t see any further hints of a Nina along those lines.
I spent far too long looking at the 1s before moving on. RARE was my first one in and with the exception of the 1s, TOPPING and NORWICH I solved steadily. Finished with BISHOP in a ‘could do better’ 9:09.
I completed an Izetti!!! Yes, that was yesterday’s puzzle, and I had to ponder on it overnight, and I needed aids, and two guesses at ATE but I will take that for an Izetti😁. Today’s puzzle was a gentler affair (thanks Jimmy) and for a relative novice; and more enjoyable for it. All parsed on the way except for BISHOP (thanks Mike for the insight on that one).
Well, we found this tricky. Last week’s elation at 2 x <15m is an increasingly distant memory.
Never thought of the French drinking 'eau'…
Missed Nato 'India' (AGAIN)
Didn't pick 'bananas' as an anagrind.
Didn't parse REP
A sad 26.47
Then read blog and wondered why we plodded so slowly.
Oh, dear.
Learnt BISH and new meaning for TRACT.
Thank you Jimmy and Mike!
The French only drink eau minérale such as Badoit, Evian, Thonon etc.
If you cut the large empty plastic ones in half, the top bit makes a very useful mini cloche, complete with built in ventilation 😉
And then only if they’ve run out of vin otdinaire.
Maybe too early in the morning but actually found this quite difficult – better once I got going. Various clues made me smile including CHATEAU, BISHOP, TOPPING, INCOGNITO, CADDIE, PIONEER, and MARCO POLO.
Should it not be Bear track behind vehicle(no apostrophe)? LOI BISHOP.
Thanks vm, Mike.
A pretty straightforward solve enabled me to finish in a respectable 6.41. It was nearly a DNF as a last minute scan of the puzzle showed me I had somehow overlooked 19ac. Having spotted that I was one letter short of a solve, T-A didn’t overtax me!
8:45
Slow start, but once CONTRACTION (Oh, that type of labour) went in, clues fell rapidly after that. LOI GRANDMASTER ( oh, that type of “on board”). Couldn’t parse REP.
COD CHATEAU
Does anyone under 50 ever say “bish”? Or TOPPING for that matter?
“Does anyone under 50 ever say “bish”? Or TOPPING for that matter?”
No and no, for me. But fortunately the clueing was generous enough to get me past those once I had a couple of crossers. And I can at least see how ‘topping’ might work, even if now obsolete, which is a distinct improvement on yesterday’s “Guy” clue…
I’m 78 and I’ve never used ‘bish’ or ‘topping’ in my life, or heard anyone else use them!
Not aware of BISH so put MISHAP as a guess and then forgot about it, so a DNF – grrrr! The rest solved steadily.
10 minutes for me. LOI CONTRACTION.
A nice QC with some golf hints which I liked. I normally play on Wednesdays, but not today.
No real hold-ups.
COD TEA.
David
I couldn’t initially make top nor tail of 1ac, and 1d didn’t exactly jump off the page either, so I thought I was in for a long haul. Fortunately, I somehow managed to re-tune to Jimmy’s wavelength and eventually crossed the line in a reasonably straightforward 18mins. That even included a parsing hold up with Marco Polo, where I had just ram for stuff and was left wondering how ‘co’ got there. . . CoD to 1d, Contraction, for the smooth surface. Invariant
“Easy” it was not – for some, anyway. After a long struggle got less than half, then stared at it thinking it’ll be one of those where we look at the blog and say” would never have got that in a million years”. And then a sudden PDM, and the realisation that the gap between hopelessness and success is just that: a couple of PDMs. So, finished it, Mrs M coming to the rescue (confession…) over parsing of LOI CONTRACTION. Loved CHATEAU. Thanks, Jimmy.
4.55. Nice one Jimmy! I thought 1a and 1d were excellent starts, and it didn’t let us down from there.
I had forgotten all about NORWICH and the like. I do now remember that day at school when somebody enlightened us with these delightfully seedy acronyms. All part of the joys of growing up.
Thanks Jimmy and Mike.
Thanks to Jimmy for an enjoyable QC. My experience chimes with that of many posters including MISHAP/BISHOP (think Jamie Oliver – ‘bish bash bosh’). I didn’t see the 1s early and moved around the grid, picking off the most accessible from a range of attractive clues. By the time I returned to 1a and 1d I had the crossers and they wrote themselves in.
13.20 – a change to be closer to the setter’s wavelength today.
Thanks to Mike.
A really enjoyable QC, completed in about 10 minutes and my coffee was still hot. COD CONTRACTION and always a pleasure to consider NORWICH, as their welcome signs claim, it is a “Fine City”.
5.47
Also quickly moved to the easier fodder in the south and worked upwards from there. Two chess clues – nicely appropriate as I and my twin (the occasional contributor Jumeau) are at the world famous (to chess players 🙂) tournament in Wijk aan Zee
Biffed chateau as it couldnt really be anything else with eau at the end but otherwise straightforward enough (which is one egg according to my French!)
From NASAL to GRANDMASTER in 8:10. ECLIPSING was well hidden! Thanks Jimmy and Mike.
8.46.
I too biffed ‘mishap’ even though I couldn’t see how it fitted! Always flummoxed by chess clues. Otherwise an enjoyable 19 minutes.
3d Eclipsing, very well hidden!
16d DNF had Mishap, unparsed, for Bishop. DOH! Mendesest and others saw and circumvented this wee trap.
Otherwise straightforward.
I the going to have a second go having read the grind …
9:04 with no errors, my first sub-10 minutes of 2025. After a slow start, only four across clues in first run-through, I too filled in enough of the downs to speed things up. Another enjoyable outing from Jimmy, I always enjoy his puzzles. FOI – CADDIES, LOI – CONTRACTION, COD – CADDIES, honourable mentions to RARE, ECLIPSING (two great “hidden” clues) TEA and CONTRACTION. Thanks Jimmy and Mike.
Not easy at all as far as I was concerned stretching me to 26 minutes. Biffed eclipsing (missed the hidden), upturn and had mishap (another biff) for bishop. NHO bish for blunder and wouldn’t really equate errand with task.
FOI – 5ac RARE
LOI – DNF
COD – liked TOPPING, CADDIE and CONTRACTION
Thanks to Jimmy and Mike
No real problems, and two straight passes. I did try looking for some type of French wine ending in “chat” at the beginning though!
FOI RARE
LOI BISHOP
COD CONTRACTION
TIME 4:45
. . .Muschat (hic) 😉
An enjoyable QC which took around 35 mins. Biffed a few.
FOI rare.
COD chateau
Thanks to Jimmy and Mike
Such fun! (that one is for Miranda fans! We’ve just been rewatching it and I’d like to say that I’m not like Penny – I’d like to say it …)
I thought this was a terrific puzzle and very entertaining. So many good clues that made me smile, including CHATEAU, INCOGNITO, NORWICH (mainly because I really like the city), and MARCO POLO.
8:07 FOI Chateau LOI Carry COD Contraction or maybe Grandmaster
Many thanks Jimmy and Mike
8.38 Mostly very gentle. CONTRACTION and NORWICH needed a bit of thought. ONSET LOI. Thanks Mike and Jimmy.
11:55 Enjoyable solve
It kept me going for half an hour AND I finished without any cheating. This is perhaps the most elegant, unforced puzzle I can remember – the ideal standard for lesser mortals to feel pleased with themselves!
Yes, a pretty gentle 10:13 here but in part because of a bit of a biff fest towards the end i.e. more than the usual went in without stopping to parse. In particular, we didn’t discover our lack of familiarity with ‘bish’ before coming to the blog, though we may have encountered that meaning of it here before. We only know it from ‘bish, bash, bosh’ which doesn’t carry the same connotation to me. COD ECLIPSING. Thanks all.
17:25
Made a real mess of this. All but 3 completed in 10 minutes but failed to notice I’d typed an E at the end of GRANDMASTER, rendering PIONEER rather tricky. Further hold ups with BISHOP and LOI MARCO POLO.
12:04 here, my first finish within target for several days. COD to CONTRACTION, for the “oh, *that* type of labour” moment.
Thanks to Jimmy and Mike.
Gentler than of late. After reading blog realised I hadn’t parsed TOPPING properly (didn’t see topping = wonderful, and probably never would 😂). Also failed to parse BISHOP. Thought shop = pawn (I know), then wondered how BI meant blunder… COD to CONTRACTION for the PDM and smile. Many thanks for sorting it all out Mike. Thanks Jimmy.
A very gamesome (chess and golf) puzzle, which I completed in 15:27 except oops! forgot to fill in TEA. Or a stray keystroke deleted the E, who knows? Wasn’t CHATEAU good!? It seems like it ought to be a chestnut but it’s new to me. Also liked ECLIPSING and CONTRACTION. Could not parse MARCO POLO beyond the CRAM and O; I don’t think we had or have Polos here. I had to trawl for BISHOP as I still haven’t learned “bish”.
Thanks to Jimmy and Mike. Never heard of the WWII acronyms, so thanks for that too.
Over 30 mins before resigning, could not see Bishop. Slow at getting Topping, Rare & Rep. not my fav corner. But great puzzle. Thanks Jimmy and Mike.
17 minutes.
Did my usual headless chicken act when the first few clues drew a blank. Got better, but failed to parse many. I didn’t find this easy at all and was content with my time until I came here.
Thanks for the blog.
PS 2 errors and one answer incomplete on 15 x 15. Almost 2 hours on this!
19 mins…
Definitely a more straightforward puzzle from Jimmy today.
FOI – 1ac “Chateau”
LOI – 20ac “Norwich”
COD – 20ac Norwich”
Thanks as usual!