Another fair-to-middling puzzle, again with a couple of trickier bits.
I made pretty good progress with this, coming in at 5:33, about a minute quicker than yesterday. I was glad to remember PLANGENT from my extensive reading of high literature crosswords past – it’s quite a tricky clue otherwise. Some particularly good surfaces on show today (not least the plangent one), all much enjoyed – many thanks to Jalna!
| Across | |
| 1 | Unforthcoming of late, holding it back (8) |
| RETICENT – RECENT (late) holding IT “back” | |
| 5 | Excited and getting overly giddy at first (4) |
| AGOG – And Getting Overly Giddy “at first” | |
| 8 | Computer hypothetically retaining much when reconfigured (6,7) |
| TURING MACHINE – anagram (when reconfigured) of RETAINING MUCH | |
| 10 | Old judge to give a lecture (5) |
| ORATE – O(ld) RATE (judge) | |
| 11 | Dutch scholar’s problems are returning (7) |
| ERASMUS -SUMS (problems) ARE “returning” | |
| 12 | Timely question fed into an AI tool, say (6) |
| PROMPT – double definition | |
| 13 | Key on map is large. So what? (6) |
| ISLAND – IS L(arge) AND? (“so what?”, delivered sarcastically). A KEY is an island, the ON MAP bit is there for good misdirection. | |
| 16 | Once again begin to relax by painting, perhaps (7) |
| RESTART – REST (relax) by ART (painting, say) | |
| 18 | Snack bars brought back some of these facilities (5) |
| CAFES – “brought back, some of” theSE FACilities | |
| 20 | Somehow, not being alone is fixed (3-10) |
| NON-NEGOTIABLE – anagram (somehow) of NOT BEING ALONE | |
| 21 | Power cut that was a close call (4) |
| PHEW – P(ower) HEW (cut) | |
| 22 | Ringing spy to get hold of information (8) |
| PLANGENT – PLANT (spy) to get hold of GEN (info). OK, so I was pleased I was able to remember the word, but I see it’s appeared more than a dozen times since 2019 – admittedly with most clues defining it as “mournful” rather than “loud” or “resonant”. Too late now to know how on earth I would have defined it had I been given the word cold: isn’t that a line of medieval kings, or something? | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Fixed allowance almost in proportion (5) |
| RATIO – RATION (fixed allowance) “almost” = dock the tail | |
| 2 | One blowing rent on a party (7) |
| TORNADO – TORN (rent, as in asunder) on A and DO (party) | |
| 3 | Think about constant working pattern (11) |
| CONTEMPLATE – C (speed of light = a constant) on (working) TEMPLATE (pattern) | |
| 4 | Singer’s selection with less feeling (6) |
| NUMBER – double definition | |
| 6 | Stern male storyteller (5) |
| GRIMM – GRIM (stern) M(ale) | |
| 7 | Wedding invitee loudly indulged in speculation (7) |
| GUESSED – sounds like, as in uttered “loudly” or audibly as GUEST (wedding invitee) | |
| 9 | Stylishness rendered in coat or suit common in the States? (5,6) |
| CLASS ACTION – with CLASS = with stylishness, anagram (rendered) of IN COAT | |
| 12 | Standard, cut vegetable (7) |
| PARSNIP – PAR (standard) SNIP (cut) | |
| 14 | A fine story, easy to relate to (7) |
| AFFABLE -A F(ine) FABLE (story) | |
| 15 | Turn round after extremely short walk (6) |
| STROLL – ROLL (turn round) after ST (“extremely” ShorT) | |
| 17 | From that moment, gluttony possibly leads to certain excesses (5) |
| SINCE – SIN (gluttony possibly) “leads” to Certain Excesses | |
| 19 | Climb without a track (5) |
| SCENT – ASCENT (climb) without A | |
DNF TURING MACHINE and NUMBER.
Obviously I know about Turing but NHO calling a computer a Turing Machine. Should have got Number, though was exhausted by then.
Managed PLANGENT eventually, and plodded through to a PDM with ISLAND (COD). Knew ERASMUS because of the scholarships.
Liked RETICENT, SINCE, SCENT, AFFABLE, among others.
FOsI PHEW, PARSNIP.
Thanks vm, Roly.
I was surprised to see TURING MACHINE, it’s specialist knowledge in my field that I didn’t think had leaked pervasively enough into general knowledge to be in a QC.
I get the exhaustion thing a lot too.
🙂
From AGOG to SINCE in 7:53. I biffed a few one of which was CLASS ACTION so I was able to construct the vaguely heard of PLANGENT with all the checkers in place. I didn’t however check the anagram fodder for my NOt NEGOTIABLE so struggled to come up with SINCE. My COD goes to ISLAND as I don’t remember having seen AND = so what before. Thanks Roly.
Ah, thanks for noT negotiable; added to Cheating Machine.
Very pleased to get home with all clues fully parsed in just under half an hour. I know that because I set Siri to time 30 minutes (Mrs R told me, quite forcefully, to hang out the washing as soon as the machine had finished its cycle – and woe betide me if I’d forgotten) and Siri’s alarm tune started up as I put down my pencil.
My FOsI were AGOG, GRIMM and ORATE and my last were PROMPT, CONTEMPLATE and PLANGENT (a word I had rejected earlier as not a real word).
My COD today was PHEW, which I said under my breath when Mrs R came back from her circuits class moments after I had finished hanging out the aforementioned washing.
Many thanks to Roly and Jalna.
😀
A washing machine that doesn’t have a timer and loud beep 😮
A fair point Mr Plates, but I don’t do the crossword in the utility room and my hearing is not what it used to be (unless someone mentions toast or beer, of course).
That no-nonsense Mrs R sure runs a tight ship!
Very enjoyable crossword. Held up by misdirection on ISLAND and fear of AI for PROMPT. But completed in 18 minutes (5 minutes on last four in).
Steady through if slowly, except for Plangent which I stared at for ages despite the Gen bit being a gimme. Biffed Prompt as it is a common computer term, but didn’t know the AI meaning (which is the opposite of normal, normally the computer gives you the prompt to invite you to put something in, e.g. “Name:” is the prompt when it wants you to put your name in). Thanks to both. Incidentally we also have class actions in the UK. The solicitors currently touting for people that were given dodgy car loans is for one.
14.04 A nice puzzle. CLASS ACTION, PLANGENT and SCENT held me up and I never figured out where the CON in CONTEMPLATE came from. Thanks rolytoly and Jalna.
The last three took as long as the rest of the puzzle put together: CLASS ACTION, PLANGENT and ISLAND. Glad I resisted the temptation to reveal the answer as there’s a real satisfaction in solving the clue.
I was sure the spy in 13a was AGENT which didn’t help.
I agree with Roly: a very nice puzzle with some tricky bits.
My time of 17:07 suggests middling to difficult, at least by my standards. Many easy clues but class action, plangent and island more than made up for them.
Not in step with this today. A couple short after 20mins. ( PLANGENT-& PROMPT)AI a mystery to me, so didn’t even try.
For some reason our timer wasn’t working properly today, it reset to zero on completion, but we were round about 14 minutes. Several quite inventive clues today I thought. Vaguely recalled the word plangent (but was unsure of its meaning) once we had sufficient checkers and it fitted the word play so in it went. Needed the blog to explain the ‘and’ bit of LOI ISLAND. Thank you both, Roly and Jalna.
I’m another who found this on the chewy side of middling, struggling to a 17:03 completion – though I did it after lunch and after a particularly stressful morning, which may have been partly to blame. Major hold-ups were over PROMPT (why is a question to AI not just a question, where does the prompt come in?), ISLAND (very clever clue, but I have been to the Florida Keys so I should have got it quicker perhaps), and my LOI PLANGENT (took a very long time to see Plant = Spy). I also see on checking the blog that having biffed CLASS ACTION I then totally misparsed it. So not my best day.
Many thanks Roly for the blog.
Another “fair to middling” puzzle that I found hard; it took me 27:42 to do it. Lots of great clues with smooth surfaces that really had me baffled for a while, rather than getting stuck in one spot as I was yesterday. CsOD ISLAND and SINCE.
Thanks Jalna and roly.
Rated this as slightly on the harder side of middling, which was welcome after a sequence of puzzles at the easier end of the spectrum. Enjoyed Turing machine and plangent. Got held up by class action for a while until I noticed it was two words not one. Then got it immediately. D’oh!
Thanks Jalna and Rolytoly.
Bletchley Park worth a visit. Never understood the flaw of the Enigma machine (encoded letter could not be the same as original) until a 2 minute demo. With an ironic twist for Turing there’s a huge LBGT nightclub in Bletchley which my straight son says is tops. Slow but steady today. J
All done in 15:50. Held up in the SE, where PLANGENT is a word that I recognize but couldn’t define and I was another looking for a word that means “rise” with an A inserted.
COD to TURING MACHINE, which reminded me of this fantastic Google Doodle. https://doodles.google/doodle/alan-turings-100th-birthday/
Thanks to Jalna and rolytoly.
I was slow to get going and began to wonder if I was on the wavelength at all but suddenly…they fell one by one. 18 minutes and I was there. Music critics use PLANGENT a lot for cello and bassoon lines of melody so no problem there. I liked RETICENT and NUMBER and ISLAND came when I thought of Dr No and Key Biscayne. Enjoyable and a decent challenge – thanks Jalna and Roly.
21:42
Nothing too tricky here apart from the NHO PLANGENT. I was just slow to pick up on the meaning of the clues. Struggled with SCENT and LOI RATIO.
I thought 13a Island was well tricky, nearly defeated me. But a nice PDM. Luckily I had a Senior Moment and Legend would not come to me.
18a Cafes, had the usual problem with hiddens; don’t see ’em ‘cos they’re hidden, innit?
COD 6d Grimm. Took a while for the realisation of how easy the clue is to occur to me…?
Thanks rolytoly and Jalna.
Found this one very difficult, but managed to struggle through and only leave 4 clues unsolved. Found it a very good puzzle though, with lots of new things learnt, like constant being abbreviated to C as its to do with the speed of light, so thank you for the explanation of the clues 😁
11.47. ‘Island’ was my last one in, and I can’t say that I’m very keen on the clue.
Last one in PLANGENT for the very confident submit only to realise I put RETRO instead of RATIO. I can’t even explain what made me do that. I think the crossers were just too tempting.
Liked GRIMM, CLASS ACTION, PROMPT and 5 or 6 others. I quite liked this one.
I thought this was pitched well, or atleast how I like the quick cryptics- a mix of straightforward with a couple that wouldn’t be out of place in the main crossword.
12 mins