Solving time: 20:42
Blimey! Either I have had a really bad day or Asp has done me like a kipper. Maybe it is just the infrequency of Asp’s offerings (my best time for his five offerings so far had been 11:18, well below my average of around 7:30), but after a brisk start, I became embroiled in some kind of mental quagmire, emerging only after battling clue by clue through the difficult SW corner.
That was my experience anyway – you may find it a breeze, be on the wavelength, even post your best time…… OR you can join me for my first ever visit to the SCC (at least being first through the door, I can snooze in one of the window seats while waiting for others to show up).
The very best of luck to you all. Please do fill me in on your experience…
Definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [directions in square ones].
| Across | |
| 1 | Current measure introduced by Conservative is affected (4) |
| CAMP – AMP (Current measure) following [introduced by] C (Conservative) | |
| 3 | Leaders of European Community still delirious (8) |
| ECSTATIC – First letters [Leaders] of E{uropean} C{ommunity} then STATIC (still) | |
| 9 | Upmarket magazine contains ultimate in downmarket gossip (7) |
| TATTLER – TATLER (Upmarket magazine) containing last letter [ultimate] in {downmarke}T
TATLER is a fashion and lifestyle magazine, also covering high society and politics, first published in 1901 but named after the literary and society journal founded by Richard Steele in 1709. It is targeted towards the British upper and upper-middle classes, and people interested in relevant society events. Former contributors include Diana Mosley and The Marchioness of Milford Haven, no less! |
|
| 10 | Left Asian port carrying cargo (5) |
| LADEN – L (Left) ADEN (Asian port) | |
| 11 | What goes round yet stays the same? (5) |
| ROTOR – A mildly cryptic riddle. ROTOR is a device that goes around, and the word itself when it goes around, reads the same backwards as forwards. | |
| 12 | Make use of plastic resistance-free polymer (6) |
| EMPLOY – Anagram [plastic] of POLYME Anyone seen ‘plastic’ as an anagram indicator before? |
|
| 14 | Discern shapes moving in hole in the wall (4,9) |
| CASH DISPENSER – Anagram [moving] of DISCERN SHAPES
Is ‘hole in the wall’ a British definition? Certainly, when I was working in London in the 1980s/1990s, this was a common term for an ATM (Automated Teller Machine i.e. CASH DISPENSER). |
|
| 17 | Complain about the French lacking strength (6) |
| FEEBLE – BEEF (Complain) reversed [about] then LE (French for ‘the’)
This was one of the first clues to befuddle me, but then I did think of BEEF as ‘Complain about’ rather than just ‘Complain’ and so didn’t see that a reversal was required. |
|
| 19 | Abandon area with poor vegetation (5) |
| SCRUB – Double definition | |
| 22 | Experience discrimination (5) |
| TASTE – Double definition
No double definitions for ages, then two come along at once… |
|
| 23 | Expert urbanely suppresses alarm (7) |
| PERTURB – Hidden [suppresses] in Expert urbanely | |
| 24 | Cars put strain on government department (8) |
| MINISTRY – MINIS (Cars) TRY (put strain on – as in “You’re trying my patience!”)
This is another clue that had me foxed – without any checkers, I couldn’t imagine what ‘Cars’ might equate to… |
|
| 25 | Present feature of higher education (4) |
| HERE – Hidden [feature of] in higher education | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Water feature that blocks one’s view? (8) |
| CATARACT – A CATARACT is any large, powerful waterfall. The second part of the clue refers to the other definition for CATARACT which is ‘an opacity in the lens of the eye’. | |
| 2 | Choral composition assembled around religious texts (5) |
| MOTET – MET (assembled) around OT (religious texts i.e. Old Testament) | |
| 4 | Cleaner rebukes person crying (6,7) |
| CARPET SWEEPER – CARPETS (rebukes) WEEPER (person crying)
Well played, sir! This one had me all ends up – got the CARPET/S part no problem, but with the S and P checkers in place for the second word, I couldn’t get away from SHAMPOO for ages. I wonder how many others will tread the same sorry path… (I’m fully expecting question marks over whether a CARPET SWEEPER is actually a cleaner, or merely a device that collects the detritus from a carpet.) |
|
| 5 | Engineer lit up plant (5) |
| TULIP – Anagram [Engineer] of LIT UP | |
| 6 | Boring outside broadcast (7) |
| TEDIOUS – Anagram [broadcast] of OUTSIDE
Pretty sure this is a chestnut… |
|
| 7 | Beat man who killed his brother reportedly (4) |
| CANE – Homophone [reportedly] of CAIN (man who killed his brother) | |
| 8 | Red state abandons core element of socialism (6) |
| FLORID – FLORID |
|
| 13 | Investigation involving corrupt lab likely to happen (8) |
| PROBABLE – PROBE (Investigation) containing [involving] anagram [corrupt] of LAB | |
| 15 | Crushes issue associated with new partnership (7) |
| STEPSON – STEPS ON (Crushes)
Looks simple in retrospect, but with only the first S in place, I was thinking more along the lines of ‘Crushes’ being the definition and the answer being something akin to SQUASHES or SQUEEZES |
|
| 16 | Guarantee criticism overlooks leader (6) |
| ENSURE – |
|
| 18 | Officially approve length of constable’s service (5) |
| BLESS – Hidden [length of] in constable‘s service
Thought that ‘length of’ was a curious hidden indicator, but I suppose it works. |
|
| 20 | Delivered foundation course (5) |
| ROUTE – Aural wordplay [Delivered] of ROOT (foundation)
I’ve used jackkt’s notion of ‘aural wordplay’ rather than homophone for this one, as there will doubtless be some that prefer to pronounce ROUTE as rhyming with ‘shout’ |
|
| 21 | Check support for plant (4) |
| STEM – Double definition
Frankly, I probably should have solved this one much more quickly than I did. It would almost certainly have made the SW corner a little easier… |
|
Completely hopeless effort with about 6 not completed. Yet reading the blog they all made sense but too difficult for me. TATTLER ROTOR FLORID STEM TASTE MINISTRY (kept thinking Treasury) – not at all on wavelength today. Thanks Asp anyway – put me back in my place and to Mike for the explanations.
DNF.
Failed by 3 clues on this puzzle. Not bad considering.
What is SCC ?
SCC is the ‘Slow Coach Club’ – if you take more than 20 minutes, you can come in and mutter in sepulchral tones about how QCs are getting harder…
Only just learning of the slow coach club, and I’m always a part of it! Is there a membership card at all? 😀
Only able to work out 7 clues in today’s one, then looked at the answers and could only work then out backwards for 3 of them. Learnt lots of new phrases though to look out for in future crosswords, so a good one to look at none the less! Thank you for explaining the clues!
MINISTRY took ages and FEEBLE biffed quickly but parsed slowly. My hunch that ‘issue’ could indicate offspring led me quickly to STEPSON with satisfaction. Hole in the wall is my usual term for one (rare occasion these days) and CARPET SWEEPER fell into place. As a slow solver this certainly was no speedway but as it was done in three bursts I just kept plodding on till it was done. Probably over the 45 mins mark when fully assembled.
I am rarely offended by setter’s licence and usually reassure myself that I have just missed some subtle cluing or other that would upset experienced solvers.
My satisfaction however is that although very slow, a year or two ago I would never have had enough ‘tools’ to have solved today’s QCC regardless of time taken, so that is self ecouragement.
Thanks Asp, Mike and fellow commenters whose experiences are always enjoyed.
Well… part of the fascination with all this is the different way in which our minds work.
We merrily zoomed along, humming until SW corner – which held us up for minutes.
Given that mud pit of sorts, we were delighted to finish in 18.35 – for us, a very pleasing time.
Now we find our delight has been shared by few and that many who are usually way faster than us, were considerably slower.
Yet on other days, exhausted after half an hour or more of hard yards, we turn to the Blog only to find most within it grinning as they post a PB or near to.
Someone must understand ….
COD STEPSON
Luckiest guess: O in MOTET (NHO – didn’t parse MET until blog..thought MASS then no thought…).
Thankyou ASP and MH
Good grief! Asp … stings! Gave up in despair. NHO cataract for waterfall. Also forgot Motet. Not entirely convinced by discrimination = taste. Is it too soon for a drink?! 14.44?! ( time in the afternoon – not the time I took to solve! ) Argh!
DNF
My worst outing for many a month. Four clues unsolved. Missed engineer and plastic as anagram indicators so failed on EMPLOY and TULIP, obvious in hindsight. But STEPSON and TASTE were beyond me.
Enjoyed this offering from Asp – many thanks for the fun.
Also enjoyed the blog, although not needing it for parsing (for once) the GK snippets are always welcome – thanks, Mike.
It seems I’m the only one who’s ever flipped through Tatler to see an acquaintance’s wedding photographs.
Came in useful today as Mr SR joins those stoutly eschewing it.
Glad it wasn’t just me that found this hard. I had looked at the QSNITCH after struggling with the downs to see what I was up against and given the comments here I am surprised it is only at 103.
I preserved for over an hour only to end up with a red square in CATeRACT. My poor spelling screws me over again, although perhaps I should be happy that isn’t a word I’ve had to use much in my life.
Hopeless in the SW corner. Even with all possible aids could not get TASTE, MINISTRY, STEM, STEPSON or BLESS.
16:54
I thought this was very tricky. A similar experience to Vinyl – I had CATARACT surgery last year, but still took a while to spot the answer.
Held up by the SW corner. Failed to see the hidden BLESS – “length of” does not read like an indicator to look for a hidden. MINISTRY was not obvious until it was. STEM was my LOI.
Thanks Mike and Asp
I found this curiously uneven – fairly straightforward until I got to the SW corner, where I eventually gave up with TASTE and STEPSON unsolved after 26 minutes. I enjoyed it but wonder if bits of it might be better appreciated by the 15×15 crowd.
Made good progress on right hand side, then ground to a halt with a number of clues on the left. Tough.
Dnf…
Well – coming to this late in the day, I wasn’t sure if I was just tired or this was rock hard. I guess it was 80% the latter. Hardly got anything in the upper half on the first pass, and then slowly managed to fill most of the RHS. But plenty of empty squares to the left once I reached 30 mins. Plenty of clever misdirection: the “stepson” as a new partnership definitely threw me, and my clever machinations at trying to work out some form of convoluted business share-split came to nothing.
I’ll have to check my records, but this might be the hardest so far this year, and is possibly on par with the Cheeko offering from last August.
FOI – 14ac “Cash Dispenser”
LOI – dnf
COD – 20ac “Route” – definitely a higher level homophone.
Thanks as usual!
The Izetti with CONTRABANDIST easily my worst of the year – 6 unsolved at 48mins.
23:31, and late in the day, so it’s standing room only at the bar of the SCC. Got 1ac immediately, but then it went swiftly downhill. I actually like “length of” as a containment indicator, well played Asp.
Thanks as always to Asp and Mike.
DNF after 23 minutes. This felt hard but it was going very well until the SW corner. STEM, MINISTRY and TASTE took a good while and I gave up with STEPSON unsolved. Thanks Mike and Asp.
B for Baffled and Breezeblocked! I have a go at the biggie every day, and probably finish it 4 or 5 times a week, but found this terribly hard – it’s the first time in ages that I have thrown in the towel with three or four clues to go.
I’ll be with Templar and the other goats (sadly not Greatest Of All Time 😅)
DNF after 15:00 FOI Camp COD Cataract – I had mine done last year and also got a lovely water feature for my birthday. That’s as good a reason as any!
Thanks anyway to Asp and extra thanks to Mike for the hard yards!
25 minutes ☹️
Another lousy performance from a truly less able solver.
Almost 90 minutes on 15 x 15. 5 unsolved and one stupid error – and blogger called it gentle!
I’m seriously deluded thinking that I will ever achieve a decent level of competence if that’s the best I can do.
19:21. I found this pretty hard, but fair. I wasn’t sure about HERE but couldn’t seen what else it could be. thank you both
I was sailing through this feeling I was really on Asp’s wavelength then got totally stuck in the SW. I gave up with four clues still to go. Interesting!
A rather late in the day solve for us and hoping that many in the SCC have given up and gone home but have had the grace to leave a little something to allow late arrivals to drown their sorrows. No problems with FLORID which went in quickly but we must have spent something like 8-9 minutes getting POI taste and then STEPSON, which held out for what seemed an age but of course looks straightforward in retrospect. This was a tough finish but there were many fine clues. 22:12 in total. Thanks to Mike and Asp.
When you require a length of wood you cut it from a longer piece. At least that’s what my Dad used to do.
A little harder than usual (didn’t finish until late in the evening) but it’s OK to be stretched from time to time.
Too late to leave a comment last night. We also DNF stymied by 4 in the SW corner (TASTE, MINISTRY, STEM & STEPSON) and by ROUTE. It started well, but progress got slower and slower until, after 30+ minutes, we decided to pull stumps. Did feel that some of this was aimed at the 15x15ers.
Going along nicely until 2d and put in Messa (Mass) i.e. ASSEMbled around.😥.
I hoped I’d completed this one, but no. I didn’t spot at all how the clue to ROUTE worked and entered ROUGE, based solely on the word ‘foundation’ being something to do with make-up. I couldn’t parse it, so there was every likelihood of it being wrong. Oh well…
As for “some people” pronouncing it the same as “rout”, only in America?
DNF. I had the opposite problem with 4d – I got the S/WEEPER immediately, but couldn’t figure out the first half. I mostly struggled with the NW corner, since I DNK Tatler, MOTET, or the waterfall definition of CATARACT. It didn’t help that I put 11a as RADAR, which I think fits just as well. Fun puzzle anyway, thanks for the explanations!