It is hard to predict the reaction of the QC community but I thought this was an absolutely splendid puzzle, packed full of terrific clues: 8a, 9a, 1d, 2d and 11d all worth the price of admission on their own. It took me 07:55, a little under average, and I don’t think there are any real obscurities. [On edit: the QUITCH is currently running at 127 so this seems to be harder than I thought; I guess it’s a wavelength thing.] Hope you enjoyed it too. Here’s how I saw it.
Definitions underlined in bold.
| Across | |
| 1 | Chap in charge is frantically busy (5) |
| MANIC -MAN [chap] + IC [in charge]. | |
| 4 | Continuous fire from gunners aboard boat (7) |
| BARRAGE – RA [gunners, i.e. the Royal Artillery] inside [aboard] BARGE [boat]. | |
| 8 | Doctor married her fiancé, presumably (7) |
| ADMIRER – anagram [doctor] of “married”. Anyone’s fiancé would also be their ADMIRER (Chambers sense 2: “a man who is attracted to a particular woman”). The definition therefore works well, elliptical as it may be, and this is a very neat clue indeed. Bravo. | |
| 9 | Wife shuns mature set (5) |
| GROUP – to “grow up” is to “mature”; remove the W [wife shuns] and you have GRO{w}UP for “set”. Very clever. I was working on “grown” for a while and half convinced myself that “gron” must be a C14 word of Icelandic origin for a bunch of seals or something. | |
| 10 | Copied direct plea incorrectly (10) |
| REPLICATED – anagram [incorrectly] of “direct plea”. | |
| 14 | Give up going into case for exemplary justice (6) |
| EQUITY – QUIT [give up] inside [going into] EY [case for exemplary, i.e. the first and last letters of “exemplary”]. “Case”, “shell”, “coating” etc are all words used to indicate the first and last letters of a word in the clue. | |
| 15 | Significance of product from abroad (6) |
| IMPORT – double definition. Once Trump realises that “significance” means IMPORT he’ll impose a 100% tariff on all “significance” by the weekend. | |
| 17 | What can open communication channels and keep them open? (10) |
| ICEBREAKER – my LOI, arrived at only through an alpha-trawl (fortunately C came early). One meaning of ICEBREAKER is the sort of conversational gambit designed to get people talking, which would “open communication channels”. And of course that metaphorical usage derives from the sort of ship that smashes through ice to keep navigational channels open. I don’t think there’s any more to it than that? Not quite sure how to define it – a cryptic definition, maybe. | |
| 20 | Shame leader of American party (5) |
| ABASH – A [leader of American] + BASH [party]. Some leaders of American parties seem hard to shame. | |
| 22 | Making uniform late in the day (7) |
| EVENING – double definition. | |
| 23 | Lead for one part of kettle (7) |
| ELEMENT – double definition. Since “lead” (the metal, symbol Pb) is just one of a number of possible elements it is clued as “for one”. | |
| 24 | Subject of article by this writer (5) |
| THEME – THE [article] + ME [this writer]. | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Strike middle of gong for dinner possibly (4) |
| MEAL – it took me a little while to understand this very good clue. “Gong” is slang for “medal”; take D, the middle letter, out of “medal” [strike middle of gong] and you have MEAL. | |
| 2 | Insensitive male interrupts important point (4) |
| NUMB – M [male] goes inside [interrupts] NUB [important point]. What a brilliant surface, COD from me in a packed field. | |
| 3 | Complain and gain access to worker in wood (9) |
| CARPENTER – CARP [complain] + ENTER [gain access to]. Behold the difference between the QC and Big Puzzle, mes enfants – Asp generously tells us that we are looking for a “worker in wood“, whereas in the 15 it would just have said “worker” (or “craftsman” or some such). | |
| 4 | Brass player has run up to Rob (6) |
| BURGLE – BUGLE [brass player – the player is synonymous with their instrument, as in “first violin”] including R [has run]. I knew that the capitalisation of “Rob” was intended to deceive but this was still my POI as I scratched my head looking for the right instrument. [On edit: Quadrophenia rightly points out that my parsing doesn’t account for the “up”, and that the right reading is that this is “bugler” [brass player] with the R moved upwards [has run up, this being a down clue].] | |
| 5 | Tamper with equipment (3) |
| RIG – double definition. | |
| 6 | Paid to supply, on approval (8) |
| ADOPTION – I have finally started to remember that “supply” can indicate an anagram (if this isn’t familiar to you think “supple”, i.e. flexible). This is an anagram [supply] of “paid to”, followed by ON [on]. | |
| 7 | Facilitate expert conceding right to hold back tide (8) |
| EXPEDITE – EXPE [expert conceding right, i.e. “expert” minus the “rt”] contains [to hold] EDIT [back tide, ie tide going backwards]. Pretty tough. I thought that “conceding right” meant just dropping the R from “expert”, not the RT, so this took me a while. | |
| 11 | Able to take part, not disheartened (9) |
| COMPETENT – COMPETE [to take part] + NT [not disheartened, ie “not” minus its central letter]. Terrific surface. | |
| 12 | Kill 10 per cent of rodents turning up in fruit (8) |
| DECIMATE – good to see DECIMATE given its original meaning (killing every tenth man of a cowardly section in the Roman army). DATE [fruit] contains ECIM [rodents turning up in, ie “mice” backwards]. | |
| 13 | Manipulate true mean, having mathematical ability (8) |
| NUMERATE – anagram [manipulate] of “true mean”. Good surface. | |
| 16 | Keen in the morning to stop period of fasting (6) |
| LAMENT – AM [in the morning] goes inside [to stop] LENT [period of fasting]. To keen is to LAMENT the dead; Collins says “C19: from Irish Gaelic caoine, from Old Irish coīnim [wail]”. | |
| 18 | Story encapsulates start of first sentence (4) |
| LIFE – LIE [story] includes F [encapsulates start of first]. LIFE is one sentence available to a Judge sentencing a criminal. | |
| 19 | Cruel person helping to make progress (4) |
| OGRE – hidden inside [helping to make] “progress”. | |
| 21 | Tool made from chrome every so often (3) |
| HOE – every other letter [every so often] of “chrome“. | |
Very tricky indeed. Absolutely stumped by MEAL but saw what was going on afterwards. I parsed BURGLE as ‘bugler’, brass player with the ‘R’ moved up (in a down clue), otherwise the ‘up’ is unaccounted for. ICEBREAKER was very clever. Liked DECIMATE and only found its true meaning recently. OGRE was well hidden. Feeling NUMB myself after this and the 15×15.
Thanks Templar and setter.
You’re right, that’s much better. Blog adjusted, thanks!
A good workout. Six on the first pass, mainly in the bottom half and about the same on the downs to leave plenty of work to do. Had ‘bugler’ for brass player and general confusion about what the rest of the clue meant and that made ADMIRER hard. If I’d spotted that was an anagram – and that ADOPTION was a partial anagram – it could all have been over a lot sooner. Enjoyed the tussle, all green in 17.19. Special mention to ICEBREAKER for being surprisingly taxing and to DECIMATE for a precise but really misdirecting surface. Thanks Asp and Templar.
18 minutes. I missed my 15 minute target for the third consecutive day with two clues in particular holding out until the last moment, ICE-BREAKER and BURGLE. Last week I solved 5 of the 6 puzzles within 10 minutes.
I found this very tricky but thankfully there were at least some relatively easy clues (not many!). Couldn’t parse MEAL (thanks Templar). I liked LIFE and clever ADMIRER amongst other cryptic teasers, and finally got ICEBREAKER as I struggled in sight of the finishing line as the 40 minute mark struck. Thanks Asp and Templar.
Yep, good puzzle, too good for me, a DNF in about 16 with the alternate letters of ICEBREAKER still missing. Struggled elsewhere as well but enjoyed the challenge, thanks to Templar and Asp.
What Steakcity said, in about the same time. With some aids we finally finished but it was a slog.
Thanks Templar for lots of help this morning.
A tricky but top quality puzzle.
My struggles weren’t helped by the fact that someone had nicked my anagram hat so I had to resort to pen and paper for a number of clues.
Like our speedy blogger, my alpha trawl for my LOI was mercifully short due to Cs helpful position in the alphabet.
A number of excellent clues today but DECIMATE, EQUITY and NUMB were my particular favourites.
Started with MANIC and finished with ICEBREAKER in 11.19.
Thanks to Templar and Asp
First in the SCC today almost missed my pass but snuck in by 11 seconds. Held up by icebreaker, decimate and equity. I’m giving myself a stern talking to for the last. For one, I missed the exemplary case that would have given me the e and y and for two I completely forgot the ‘where there’s a u look for a q’ dogma. They would have given me equity and helped with decimate then icebreaker.
Ho hum. Great puzzle asp and great blog Templar
A very good puzzle, completed but not all parsed in 14:37. In fact I thought it was overall so good that rather than turn immediately to the blog for elucidation, I then sat down to work out all the parsings I hadn’t seen first time, and there are several really well constructed clues to enjoy. Too many to list, but ICEBREAKER (my LOI after a letter search) stands out for me.
Many thanks Templar for the blog.
On edit – ICEBREAKER seems to be the clue which has caused the most interest/difficulty for others too, and I asked AI where the phrase “break the ice” for “open communication channels” comes from. It appears it is very much older than one might think, and far predates modern ice-breaker ships, with references back to the 16th century. Erasmus used it in Latin form as long ago as 1528 when he wrote “scindere glaciem” (meaning “to split or break ice”) in his work Adagia, using it to mean “to open the way and be the first to carry out a task” – not that far from the modern meaning of “to start a conversation or overcome social awkwardness” – and it was first noted in English in about 1579 when Sir Thomas North used it in his translation of Plutarch’s “Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans”.
The things one learns down internet wormholes …
A whopping 23:50 spent on this one, but it was an excellent puzzle and I guess I was just a bit slow to get the point of many clues. Failed to spot the anagrams for ADMIRER and ADOPTION for far too long and couldn’t quite believe kill 10 per cent might be a definition for something until I had all the checkers and the penny dropped. LOI ICEBREAKER.
Beaten by ICEBREAKER, which I might have found with an alphabet trawl but I dislike that process so usually don’t bother. I found this pretty tough throughout, hopped around to get some bones on which to put meat later. Entirely fair and clever clues, but I was not on song.
Asp seems to have a wide repertoire of terms for directing the various actions required to get to the answer which makes their puzzles distinctive, and for me distinctly challenging, but well worth the effort.
Agree about alphatrawling. The infinite monkeys at typewriters would eventually solve The Times crossword but it’s not a particularly satisfying or enjoyable way to do it.
26:51 for the solve. About half that spent alphatrawling ICEBREAKER with COMPETENT and BURGLE also left at that point. Probably a good puzzle but that extended trawl sticks in my throat for what wasn’t an overly helpful clue. Had to parse GROUP postsolve and there were a number of sticky words/defs.
Thanks to Templar for the blog and to Asp.
I think ICEBREAKER is just a bad clue
A tough one. I was sucked in by 1a and 1d which were loss leaders. I managed quite a few on my ususal grid trawl and was over half way through when the phone rang. I never really recovered from the interruption and was clearly off balance when I resumed (and already into the SCC). Frustratingly, I did not see ICEBREAKER and threw in the towel.
So, DNF but with all parsed (including MEAL and BURGLE!) up to my LOnI.
Thanks, both.
11 on first complete pass. Two more on second pass. Missed life despite the two checkers. I went for time without really thinking about the parsing. More haste less accuracy.
Would it be classed as a biff if one knew decimate just from the definition? Pretty sure we were taught about that in primary school history.
Only knowing it from the definition is pretty much the gold standard for a biff! 13 on this puzzle is good going, well done.
Thank you 🙂
BIFD – bunged in from definition.
I suspect people often misuse “biffed” when they guess an answer from the checkers they’ve filled in.
I didn’t know it was a four letter acronym which I guess is an FLA, which is the code for Fort Lauderdale Airport as in Holly came in from Miami F L A, Miami International being MIA.
In general Canadian codes start with a Y which is something to do with ILS, and take the first and last letter of the city they serve, hence Vancouver is YVR. Then you have the exceptions with Toronto being YYZ and Ottawa YOW. I’m having to rest after a tooth extraction…. I’ll now look up a few more codes…. according to the web the second and third letters are radio station codes and the Y signifies that the airport has a weather station… question now is how are the radio station codes originated.
I’m sure it was a “splendid, excellent, top-quality” puzzle. Too difficult for the likes of me, though! Stumped by ICE-BREAKER, BURGLE and ADOPTION, all very hard; biffed EQUITY but no idea how it worked. Thank you, Templar. Liked “not disheartened”.
I was another who needed to alpha-trawl my LOI, but it shouldn’t have been necessary in retrospect.
FOI MANIC
LOI ICEBREAKER
COD BURGLE
TIME 5:34
A toughie. Plenty of biffs required to finish in a very slow 28:11. GROUP, ADOPTION, BURGLE, MEAL all unparsed. Hard work.
13:43, with ADOPTION and OGRE my last two in.
A very enjoyable puzzle.
COD Burgle.
Thanks Templar and Asp
Biffed MEAL – could not see how it worked – clever clue. A great QC. Thanks Templar for the blog which mirrored many of my thought processes.
Quite a tricky offering from Asp today. MANIC went straight in, as did BARRAGE, but then the flow of acrosses came to an abrupt halt, and I started the downs to get some crossers. This helped, but it was still slow going. ICEBREAKER held out until I had all the crossers. I then returned to the recalcitrant NE, where BURGLER and LOI, ADOPTION finally yielded. 9:33. Thanks Asp and Templar.
Not the easiest today, and I was pleased to finish just a few seconds outside target at 10.10. Having said ‘finished’, that’s not strictly true as I decided that my LOI 5dn was APORTION and not ADOPTION, so a DNF. I even managed to convince myself it parsed, although on reflection it doesn’t. I was uneasy about the answer so should have deliberated longer I suppose. Other than that, ICEBREAKER caused me the greatest problem before I cracked it (pun intended).
I was tempted by APORTION but it needs another P.
This might be a very good puzzle but it isn’t a quickie in my opinion, Thanks though!
I was well beaten by this one, with 6 clues unsolved after 25 minutes, 5 of which were in thr NE. Enjoyable, though, and I learned a few new things (for example, ‘supply’ as ‘in a supple way’ was new to me as an anagram indicator – thanks Templar for that one). Time well spent.
Thanks Asp and Templar
53:40!!
I found this all but impossible. As the clock passed my 30 minute cutoff I still had 5 blanks but persevered. Struggled with ICEBREAKER and GROUP. I think the word set is in the Guinness book of records for having something like 27 meanings so not the easiest definition. But it was LOI ADOPTION which almost floored me. Completely missed the anagram indicator.
Well done on hanging in there DH 👍
I think the tenacity you exhibit here is an excellent tool for wrestling the QC into something that normally yields within 20 minutes or so. Well done! (This is where I am now with the 15×15, on days when it makes any sense to put in the time. Wait, does that ever make sense? Never mind.)
11:16, which I’m quite pleased with given the difficulty.
Many good clues, although some verging on too hard for the quick cryptic, especially e.g. 1d, requiring us to know gong = medal, and 16d, requiring me at least to biff from the wordplay and accept that there must be a definition of ‘keen’ that fits LAMENT.
Nonetheless think I could have gone quicker if I’d gotten the pretty simple 1a MANIC immediately. Ended up filling in that corner last.
For those (happy) few of us who parse as we go, this was really quite a stiff test. I normally pull stumps at the 30min mark, but today I was enjoying the challenge and carried on. Burgle, Import(🙄), Competent and loi Adoption eventually yielded for a very satisfying solve. CoD, as Templar says in a very strong field, to 22ac, Evening, for the welcome smile in the midst of a tricky patch. Invariant
DNF. ICEBREAKER beat me. And went for APORTION as could not see how ADOPTION could work. Missed “supply” as anagram indicator.
DECIMATE now means “utterly destroy”, words change their meaning. Anyone using it today to mean reduce by 10% is being perverse.
On the wavelength today, finishing in 15.35. I had everything except 17a polished off in 15 minutes dead and suspected that I was going to fail at the last hurdle, but fortunately for me my brain came up with ICEBREAKER out of nowhere.
Some lovely surfaces today, very enjoyable. Thank you to Asp for the puzzle and to Templar for the blog!
Dnf…
I did pull stumps at 30 mins – but looking at the three answers above I didn’t get: 9ac “Group”, 6dn “Adoption” and 14ac “Equity” – I wasn’t a million miles out. I was thinking of “Grown Up” for 9ac, and if I’d only picked the right tense then the penny may have dropped. Frustratingly, I initially had “Adoption” for 6dn but didn’t think it was right.
FOI – 1ac “Manic”
LOI – Dnf
COD – 4dn “Burgle” – took far longer than it should, but the surface made me chuckle.
Thanks as usual!
Wouldn’t have got EQUITY in a month of Sundays, but everything else slotted in, ICEBREAKER went in slowly as obsession from checkers that it started with ‘clear’ didn’t help. Enjoyed this puzzle, which I thought was pitched just right
Some of this was very straight forward and some of this wasn’t but it was all very clever. The 1s went straight in. I had particular problems in the NE. The lack of checkers until BARRAGE arrived meant that BURGLE and ADOPTION (not sure it is a synonym of approval) were my LOsI. I didn’t know the original meaning of DECIMATE and wondered how the 10% worked in the clue. My favourites were ADMIRER and GROUP (my reaction when invited to join the local WI). 9:19 Thanks Templar
adoption = approval happens quite often in board meeting minutes. The Finance Director’s proposal was adopted.
Thanks Ham, I am an accountant and have sat on a finance committee. I think James Ed46 is an accountant too and yet we both struggled with ADOPTION = approval.
I sat on sports committees and was a school governor for a few years and we would adopt proposals. I guess it depends on how formally the meeting is run and minuted.
Actually I now I come to think about it, I may even have been the head of the school’s finance committee for a short time.
Slow but steady, and all enjoyable. Also got 17a from trawl, but then parsing was obvious. LOI 6D, after another trawl had adoption and abortion but couldn’t parse either.
Very enjoyable tussle, thanks to both.
9:36
Didn’t seem overly difficult, so was surprised when on glancing at the clock, it was already past 7m30s. As with several others, my LOI was ICEBREAKER which beginning with I_E, I immediately went along the ICE route. BURGLE also had me foxed until the final checker went in.
Thanks Templar and Asp
Exhausted by a very good/tricky workout.
We were doing quite well until, when faced with the final 5, we weren’t. A lot of ‘cousins once removed’ where the knowing made jumps (leaps?) to move to the next step.
DNF – ICEBREAKER took us down… tried READER, DREAMER… and on, and on.
BURGLE, BARRAGE, GROUP also slow for us.
COD GROUP (once explained)
NHO LAMENT as keen
Found this very hard, though cannot complain about any clue.
Learnt such a lot today – both from the workout and from the blog.
Many thanks – appreciated…just not like this every day please.
Don’t understand “helping to make” as a hidden indicator. Not seen that.
The ‘cruel person’ (OGRE) helps to make the word ‘prOGREss’
Very enjoyable puzzle, managed to finish in roughly 90 minutes. Really liked the clue for LIFE and only got DECIMATE from remembering it from Doctor Who 😆 Very funny puzzle for me, thought grown for mature, but never thought of grown-up for the longest time, and spent a while staring at my kettle trying to think of its parts! Thank you for the blog
DW is where I learned the meaning of DECIMATE. Think it was in The Sound of Drums, the one with the Toglafoos or something – certainly one of the last Tenant stories.
Yes it’s that one! Glad somebody else knew it!
Enjoyable but why does a QC need to be so hard? Icebreaker, Adoption, Barrage, Burgle, decimate all made a mincemeat of my time.
I was just about to give up on 17 across when ICE BREAKER sprang to mind.
So I did finish eventually , all correct, though CNP/slow to parse GROUP, ADMIRER, COMPETENT, EQUITY, ADOPTION.
Liked ELEMENT, MEAL, RIG, LAMENT.
Thanks for vital blog, Templar.
16.48 All parsed. I doubled my time with last two ICEBREAKER and ADOPTION. I was struggling to think of any word that fitted the former until I came up with ICECREAMED and then the penny dropped. The latter was obvious when I remembered the other “supply”. Thanks Templar and Asp.
This was the best little one for a long time.
22:31. Stared at MEAL for a long time as I couldn’t choose between it and mean(middle) or meat(dinner). Same with ADOPTION, abortion, and aportion. BURGLE, EQUITY, ELEMENT were very hard too. ABASH was my favourite. When people would point out the original meaning of DECIMATE( kill one in ten) I would respond well it works fine with me if it is interpreted to leave one in ten left alive.
Yes, tricky, but very satisfying. Managed to finish all correct but did have to alphatrawl the C in LOI ICEBREAKER and failed to spot that OGRE was a hidden 🙄 Biffed then parsed MEAL, EXPEDITE, BARRAGE, ELEMENT and GROUP. Lots of brilliant clues but joint COD to GROUP and ICEBREAKER. Lovely puzzle Asp and many thanks Templar.
Once again, probably a splendid puzzle for the experts but not a QC in my opinion
This was a very pleasing puzzle, which had me strolling comfortably through most of it, then thoroughly confused with my last one ADOPTION. Funny how one goes down a cul-de-sac and can’t get out again. My fatal error was dismissing the possibility that “supply” was an anagrind and not reconsidering until what felt like the end of time, but was actually just under 24 minutes. ICEBREAKER held me up too. Amused by GROUP, MEAL (partly because I find “gong” for “medal” amusingly strange or strangely amusing), NUMB (story of my life), and NUMERATE.
Thanks to Asp and Templar.
Stern but fair, as the saying goes with NE corner the most problematic. Couldn’t figure out the wordplay for ADOPTION and GROUP and only partly understood it for 14a.
18:43. Never parsed MEAL, and despite spotting that ADOPTION was an anagram of PAID TO plus ON, the penny never dropped about “supply” meaning “in a supple manner”. Perhaps that will stick this time.
I agree with everyone who said this was an excellent puzzle.
Thanks to Asp and Templar.
Worked long and hard at this one but managed a DNF thanks to 6d APORTION. I know it’s misspelt but I was getting desperate by then.
Full marks to Asp for an entertaining puzzle.
I though LIFE was very clever.
Almost all parsed but thanks Templar for explaining the others.
Thanks Templar and Asp.
COD 9a Gro(W)up for the PDM.
Defeated by 1d Meal, biffed (couldn’t be anything else,) DOH!
4d Burgle, beaten again, I parsed it as r in bugle as Templar did, but Quadrophenia is undoubtedly right (if anyone cares about my opinion.)
Good puzzle, made me work for it and still fail to parse 2.
Absolutely top crossword – cheers!
13:52. Lovely puzzle – cracking clues and I took an age to find ICEBREAKER… I saw the word INEBRIATED fitted all the checkers and I couldn’t get it out of my head! maybe it’s time for a drink…