A proper toughie today with new setter Shay’s second outing.
I struggled with large parts of the NW and SE, which had to be hacked away at for nearly seventeen minutes – my slowest by a bit, for a bit.
Well done if you managed to get through all or even most of it, but I wouldn’t be disheartened if not, as the difficulty of a number of the clues was more of a decent-strength 15×15. And then when these clues intersect… well, you end up with a very tough solve.
Chalk it up as one of those fun learning experience things! There have been several such chastening puzzles over on the 15×15 of recent, so I’m well enough aware of the feeling.
Some excellent stuff along the way to soften the bruises, my favourite being the drunken dons at 11ac – cheers to Shay!
| Across | |
| 8 | Violent storm to bother sheltering Navy (7) |
| TORNADO – TO and ADO (bother) sheltering RN (Royal Navy). I was thinking the TO-DO was the bother, and was wondering what the A was doing. | |
| 9 | Volunteer work, popular introduction to employment (5) |
| OPINE – OP (work) IN (popular) E (“introduction” to Employment). To volunteer, as in to offer up information. | |
| 10 | Slight prod necessary at first (5) |
| SPURN – SPUR (prod) N (Necessary “at first”). Tough. | |
| 11 | University dons stayed drunk for 24 hours (7) |
| TUESDAY – U(niversity) dons/wears/is clothed by an anagram (drunk) of STAYED | |
| 12 | Clobber whoever spoilt latter half of film (9) |
| OVERWHELM – anagram (spoilt) of WHOEVER and LM (“latter half” of fiLM) | |
| 14 | Old man left mate (3) |
| PAL -PA (old man) L(eft) | |
| 16 | Slippery character returned three letters from Middle East (3) |
| EEL – “returned three letters” from middLE East | |
| 18 | Revolting rum in tiny mug (9) |
| MUTINYING – anagram (rum) of IN TINY MUG. Very good! I certainly fell into the trap of trying to unravel synonyms for phizog or hijack. | |
| 21 | Some clever Andalusians open gallery (7) |
| VERANDA – “some” cleVER ANDAlusians | |
| 22 | Roughly position head for doctor (5) |
| CAPUT – CA. (circa = roughly) PUT (position). Medical word for the head, and tricky if you don’t know it, especially as it crosses with an equally tricky medical-based clue at 15d. | |
| 23 | Previously called with extremely dubious demands (5) |
| NEEDS -NEE (previously called) with DS (“extremely” DubiouS) | |
| 24 | Fury after vacuous clerical mistake (7) |
| CLANGER – ANGER (fury) after CL (“vacuous” ClangeR) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Lug instrument and books round room (8) |
| OTOSCOPE – OT (Old Testament = books) O (round) SCOPE (room). As in lug = ear, and scope/room for improvement. | |
| 2 | Birds squawk (6) |
| GROUSE – a fiendish double definition: squawk/grouse/complain | |
| 3 | Man on board vessel housing wife (4) |
| PAWN – PAN (vessel) housing W(ife). Man = any chesspiece. | |
| 4 | Cereal stuck in my beard (6) |
| GOATEE – OAT (cereal) stuck in GEE (cor/my/heavens above!) | |
| 5 | Canine abdomen sadly containing tip of finger (8) |
| DOBERMAN – anagram (sadly) of ABDOMEN containing R (“tip” of fingeR) | |
| 6 | Success upset sweet kid (4,2) |
| WIND UP – WIN (success) PUD (sweet/dessert) upset = reversed | |
| 7 | Count is really disheartened (4) |
| RELY – “dishearten” = take the “heart” out of RE |
|
| 13 | Effete old chap seized by desire (8) |
| WOMANISH – O(ld) MAN (chap) seized by WISH (desire). Borderline, at best, this, however good a clue it might be, even with tongue-in-cheek. Collins and Chambers don’t list the “effeminate” sense of effete required here, but it is in the OED. | |
| 15 | Operating theatre’s closing for benefit of patients? (8) |
| LIGATURE – very good cryptic definition, referring to the tying up or “closing” in a surgical operation. | |
| 17 | Fat peer regularly seen in pantry (6) |
| LARDER – LARD (fat) p E e R “regularly seen” | |
| 19 | Canter about in daze (6) |
| TRANCE – anagram (about) of CANTER | |
| 20 | Setter’s initially nervous after dog attack (6) |
| IMPUGN – I’M (setter’s, as in: setter is in a tough mood = I’m in a tough mood) N (“initially” Nervous) after PUG (dog). PUG can also be short for PUGILIST, often clued as BOXER, which can be slightly confusing. | |
| 21 | Five naked gents let off steam (4) |
| VENT -V (five) ENT = “naked” g ENT s | |
| 22 | Bloke is quiet after tea (4) |
| CHAP – P (piano = quiet) after CHA (tea) | |
I gave up on LIGATURE (my nemesis the pure cryptic definition), threw in any old thing that fit the crossers, looked at my pink squares, and thought, “ligature, you idiot”. Other than that, about 20 minutes of solving with lots of mental clangs providing a cheery percussive background. CAPUT was hard, should have thought of the boar’s head earlier than I did. Loved GOATEE and the naked gents.
Thanks Shay and rolytoly, especially for introducing me to the bizarre phizog.
PS: I think my experience with this very hard, apparently, puzzle might be the inverse of someone’s recent observation that times for the experts don’t vary much with the puzzle’s difficulty. All puzzles are hard for me in some sense since I’m new enough to be constantly stumbling over new devices and vocabulary. So this one didn’t feel as far out of line for me as it did for the old hands!
Phizog
Yes isn’t it bizarre – sufficiently so to have lodged firmly in my head from.. a search reveals it appeared in a bit of a stinker of a Jumbo back in 2021. Johninterred blogged it as:
Features, something Greek might write, connected with old Balkan ruler (6)
PHIZOG – PHI (something Greek might write) ZOG (old Balkan Ruler). Zog I was King of Albania. What a great name! And a bit of a tricky clue – a new word on me.
Well done btw – that’s an impressive solve!
Aww shucks, thanks, but more of a non-solve actually.
Yes, King Zog sounds so unlikely, like something out of The Prisoner of Zenda. All waxed moustaches and epaulettes and frogged jackets.
Dear Jason,
Please could you consider publishing a daily cryptic crossword that helps us ordinary mortals transition up to the QC?
DNF. I struggled slowly through 19 clues in about half an hour and then managed only one more (TUESDAY) in the next half hour. I gave up when the hour chimed with six clues still unsolved – SPURN, CAPUT, OTOSCOPE, GROUSE, WIND UP and LIGATURE.
Many thanks to Roly.
Bemused by the snitch score of 165 as this one didn’t seem any more harder than last Saturday’s.
Persevered for half an hour, and gave up with five unsolved. The hardest QC by a street with many of the clues considered difficult by 15×15 standard I would have thought.
I realise that it’s objective, and dependent on the various solvers’ level of expertise, but at what point in the solve does one consider that the puzzle isn’t “quick”?
For me, it’s when it stretches over 10 minutes against my target of 6 minutes, and an expectation of just two thirds of the latter time.
Today’s 15×15 wasn’t a walk in the park, but my time for that one of 11:16 rather puts this puzzle into context.
Agree with all the rather negative comments made by others but managed to finish with the widespread use of aids which I find to be a more satisfying way of dealing with difficult puzzles rather than just giving up.
That rather depends on what you are trying to achieve. Sites like Dan Word will give you the answer to every single clue, but what’s the point in that ?
Dnf…
Can’t add anything else that hasn’t been said, apart from a large sigh.
FOI – 16ac “Eel”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 4dn “Goatee”
Thanks as usual!
If you had posted (yet) another sub-10 today, I’m really not sure how I would have coped
Annoying really, as I was hoping to at least try and get a full house of completed solves for the week – something I haven’t done in ages, mainly because of the nemesis that is the Saturday QC.
I’m a RUMINTINY too, DNF in fact nowhere near. Too high a bar for a QC and for me
Phew. That was a toughie. Struggled with NW and SE corners but then the SE dropped leaving two clues to get. Croquet called for several hours. Came back, made a cuppa, and all of a sudden GROUSE fell, giving the U for SPURN.
Glad I persisted unaided by the blog or any other help. Liked OTOSCOPE and LIGATURE. Is the setter a doctor?
Thanks Shay and rolytoly for a good workout and interesting blog
On the basis of the SNITCH the hardest QC in the last couple of years, beating QC 2744, Cheeko’s first puzzle, into second. The blog that day is unsurprisingly similar to today’s.
35:31 to (nearly) finish as NHO or could imagine womanISH. Biffed OTOSCOPE (NHO) and wondered about MUTINYING, but that had to be. A couple of others took a while too. Very much at the tough end of things.
DNF. Started using aids after 40 mins to try to finish. Retired hurt after a further 20mins of brow wrinkling left caput and ligature outstanding. Was vaguely thinking of horse copers for doctor, but it didn’t get further than that. COD goatee. Thanks to blogger and setter.
I can usually do the 15*15 without aids in an hour or so, but this QC took an age. SCC by a country mile. I only completed it without cheating because I was on a longish journey.
22a Caput took an age as did LOI 4d Goatee. I kept looking at _O_T_E and thinking I couldn’t crowbar Cor! in. And 1d Otoscope and 15d Ligature weren’t doddles either.
21d Vent, looked obvious but for some odd reason I couldn’t parse it for about 2 minutes. Doh!
Thanks to rolytoly and Shay (when?).
Stopped the clock at 30 mins with 5 not done. I got the medical terms but I am a retired medic.
Very difficult QC. I found some of the answers hard to match with the definition : OPINE, and GROUSE . They may well be in the dictionaries but I found their use obscure.
13d I thought inappropriate.
Some enjoyable clues though LIGATURE, CLANGER amongst them.
Thanks for the helpful blog.
I enjoyed quite a lot of that, failing to finish after half an hour with LIGATURE, CAPUT and OTOSCOPE unsolved (I could have looked at those for a thousand years without getting anywhere). COD to GOATEE, which gave me a very satisfying PDM.
Don’t understand anything about LIGATURE so I will just have to accept the assurances that it’s a good clue.
Thank you for the blog!
DNF. Usual suspects. Tough.
Wow, that was hard, many blanks.
I can hardly believe it, but I managed to finish this. The Snitch is on 164, which I think is the highest number since records began. I felt dispirited by only being able to solve 15 clues by the time I reached Winchester, but I got a few more on the way back, and the last ones this evening. LOI Grouse. I enjoy the puzzle more when it’s rather easier, but I can at least feel a sense of accomplishment.
20:56 with LOI GROUSE. It was definitely a battle but I thought the clues were quite straightforward and fair for a qc, but at the same time hard, if that makes sense!!
Just want to record that Mrs L (first language not English) and I managed to complete it all except otoscope (and me an ex quack and all!). But it took us all day, on and off.
Bravo!
24a: “vacuous” ClericaL
one of those days when I slammed in the answer to the first clue I looked at, then tried the crossers of that and another three clues before I found my second entry
ouch
We’re so late with this today that this comment may never get read. We did persevere and finally finished in 25:48, perhaps our slowest ever successful finish. Little to add to what’s already been said; largely to agree with Cedric’s comments re the intersecting SPURN and Grouse, our last two in. RELY, third last, was also rather tough for a QC but nevertheless a good clue – might have felt differently if I hadn’t seen it!
1.5 hour DNF.
Didn’t get MUTINYING or CAPUT. How could I not get CAPUT with C_P_T? How could I not get MUTINYING with M_T_N_I_G.? Truly dreadful. I don’t know what happens to my brain when I do cryptics, but something stops working. You either have it or you don’t. I don’t.
I always thought crosswords should be a challenge – not a battle.
Managed to solve half of the puzzle yesterday, and the clues I did solve I felt very proud of. Thank you for the explanations to the clues, as there are lots of synonyms I’d of never thought of that I must try and remember in the future!
Coming in late to echo others’ points: impossibly and unenjoyably hard.
Dnf
Liked vent but not much else.
Its not that hard to judge difficulty. Not sure what is going on in the News Building.
Pretty simple concept, harder puzzle and easier puzzle. Please make the quick crypic easier again.
Agree with a lot of the above comments. We have no desire to move onto the 15 x 15 either. If the QC can’t be kept at a easier level for us mere mortals, please can we have an EQC (easier Quick Cryptic) to help us on our way.