Bjorn’s third puzzle is a cracker.
I could pretty much copy-and-paste the previous two blog intros, from Templar last October, and Kitty this January: “full of wit and tricks but still well-judged as a QC”; “I am nervously predicting a QUITCH of about 100 and some reasonably happy punters”; however, “With some clever misdirection in wordplay and definitions, this felt like the kind of puzzle which might sit better with experienced solvers used to more advanced puzzles.”
Yes to all of that. A puzzle replete with great surfaces, this was an absolute pleasure to solve. I came in at 6:11, so would repeat both Templar’s tentative quitch prediction, and Kitty’s caveat. Super stuff – many thanks to Bjorn!
| Across | |
| 1 | Britain’s No 1: Everybody Dance (4) |
| BALL – B (Britain’s “Number 1”) ALL (everybody). Wiki tells me that Everybody Dance is a fairly well-known disco song. Apparently it cost $10 to record, “which went on bribing the elevator engineer not to tell the manager they were recording in there.” | |
| 3 | 21 Amarula liqueur bottles (7) |
| LALIQUE – 21ac being CRYSTAL, the answer is “bottled” by amaruLA LIQUEr. Apparently amarula is a slightly fruity, caramel-tasting cream liqueur from South Africa, in case you’re wondering. LALIQUE should be slightly better known, but if not, sure it’s a hidden. Cross-reference clues are a lot more palatable when they read like a proper sentence, such as this. | |
| 8 | In New Year, Ali G set off Rocket, famously (7,6) |
| RAILWAY ENGINE – anagram (set off) of IN NEW YEAR ALI G. My LOI. The definition refers to Stephenson’s Rocket. | |
| 9 | Where I go after sampling alcohol periodically? (3) |
| LOO – Semi-&lit, where the whole clue is the definition, but only part of it is cryptic wordplay (as opposed to the entirety in a full &lit). Here the cryptic is “sampling” the “periodic” letters of: a L c O h O l. | |
| 10 | Starts to mull over Times, identifying frivolous theme (5) |
| MOTIF – the “starts” to the subsequent five words. | |
| 12 | Manipulated wife went fishing (7) |
| WANGLED – W(ife) ANGLED (went fishing). Etymology obscure, notes the OED, adding “Probably, like many other slang words, it was formed involuntarily, under the influence of an obscure sense of phonetic symbolism.” What a great way to describe how a lot of slang presumably originates. | |
| 14 | Mephisto? Ugh … I expect contains difficult question (7) |
| TOUGHIE – is contained by mephisTO UGH I Expect. | |
| 16 | Teams pick swindlers on a regular basis (5) |
| SIDES – pick/select the letters from S w I n D l E r S “on a regular basis” | |
| 17 | TV series (3) |
| SET – very neat double definition | |
| 20 | Small island renegotiated its financing (13) |
| INSIGNIFICANT – I. (abbrev. for Island) and an anagram (renegotiated) of ITS FINANCING | |
| 21 | Weep salt tears, completely transparent (7) |
| CRYSTAL – CRY (weep) and an anagram (tears) of SALT | |
| 22 | Got introduced to hard drug (4) |
| METH – MET (got introduced to) H(ard) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Sort of orange got confused with amber (8) |
| BERGAMOT – anagram (confused) of GOT with AMBER. Of Earl Grey tea fame. | |
| 2 | Former PM rejecting British retreat (4) |
| LAIR – BLAIR (former PM) rejecting the B(ritish) | |
| 3 | Fell over punching Wally when drunk (3,3) |
| LAY LOW – O(ver) punches/enters an anagram (when drunk) of WALLY. I was a bit confused by this, thinking LIE LOW and FALL are hardly the same thing, but in fact we’re in the present tense, where to LAY LOW = to K.O. = to FELL. | |
| 4 | Piece of stair carpet where moths might descend? (7,5) |
| LANDING STRIP – a sort of cryptic hint to an oblique definition: a piece of stair carpet could be described as a strip of material on a landing; and a moth is a light aircraft, which would indeed land on a landing strip. | |
| 5 | Queen ate sparingly after ignoring starter, complained pettily (8) |
| QUIBBLED – QU. (queen) nIBBLED (ate sparingly) after ignoring starter. QUIBBLE derives from QUIB, an obsolete word for a delaying or obscuring tactic in an argument, which itself comes from the Latin (ablative plural) for WHO, quibus, “a word of frequent occurrence in legal documents and hence associated with the length and unnecessary complexity of legal documents.” Love it! | |
| 6 | Calm First Lady back in Washington (4) |
| EVEN – EVE (first lady) and the “back” of washingtoN | |
| 7 | Play Wild Thing after glorious date! (7,5) |
| TWELFTH NIGHT – anagram (wild) of THING comes after TWELFTH ( |
|
| 11 | One entering French city — extremely tacky — full of visitors? (8) |
| TOURISTY – I (one) enters TOURS (French city), TY (“extremely” TackY) | |
| 13 | Dispose of junk around health resort (8) |
| DISPATCH – DITCH (junk) around SPA (health resort) | |
| 15 | Sixth sense originally identified after long observation (6) |
| ESPIAL – ESP (extra-sensory perception = sixth sense) and then Identified After Long “originally” | |
| 18 | Element of unknown since uncovered? (4) |
| ZINC – Z (unknown in maths) and then remove the “covering” letters of sINCe | |
| 19 | Puzzle that sounds corny? (4) |
| MAZE – sounds “LIKE MAIZE”, ie, “like corn”, or “corny”. Very inventive – I don’t think I’ve seen this twist on the homophone clue before. | |
15:05. Absolutely delighted to see the return of Bjorn who, after only three appearances, is now firmly in my Top 3 favourite compilers (Trelawney and Mara being the other two).
As usual with Bjorn, lots to like here, I’m giving COD to LOO for appealing to my childish sense of humour, and honourable mention to WANGLED, but this was very enjoyable all the way through. FOI – LOO, LOI – TOURISTY. Thanks Rolytoly and especially to Bjorn
30:24. Almost cracked the half-hour mark for the first time, an enjoyable puzzle indeed.
Terrific puzzle, very clever, 7.07 with DISPATCH and METH my LOsI. Thanks to Bjorn and thanks to Roly for explaining LAY LOW which threw me somewhat. I thought the glorious twelfth was August 12, when apparently you are allowed to start killing grouse.
I biffed INSIGNIFICANT and TWELFTH NIGHT. DNK what was glorious, but ODE says the Glorious 12th is 12 August, the start of grouse season. 5:42.
Glorious 12th
Ah, thanks, that’s much more plausible! Will amend the blog.
As I suggested earlier…
Oh dear, sorry I missed that – must have been a bit bleary eyed!
Yes, a fine puzzle. I actually knew that the Glorious 12th was the start of the grouse season, having failed on that in some previous puzzle. I also recognized that a moth is a light airplane. I was only slowed down by putting in dispatct – shouldn’t that be meth? Oops!
Time: 10:25
With CRYSTAL METH along the bottom of the grid I wondered if there’s more to be found here. Also to go with CRYSTAL is BALL at 1ac, and LALIQUE at 3a the surname of René Lalique who amongst other things was famous for his glass designs (including perfume bottles), so that fits too.
As for the puzzle, I finished in 9 minutes, making this my 4th consecutive solve this week within my old target of 10 minutes. I wonder if I shall have a clear run of 6 days. On Bjorn’s previous outings I needed 14 and 19 minutes.
LALIQUE was my only unknown, an answer making only its second appearance here – the previous one was in December 2008. No complaints though, as a hidden answer it was a gift.
Good spot! Also crystal set, a primitive radio, and crystal maze, a TV programme. Any others?
Thanks. I’m so glad I spotted a connection before posting as I had been planning to say that LALIQUE looked like a word the setter had been forced into including as the only word that fitted the checkers he was stuck with. I think now it may indeed have been his starting point
I know I’m both slow and ignorant, but where’s the primitive radio, please?
(Thank you, Hector below – golly, ignorant indeed.)
Crystal set is a primitive radio.
Would have liked to have seen CRYSTAL PALACE as an omen for this weekend’s FA Cup Final… 🙂
Hooray 13:15 today having plodded into the Super SCC yesterday. Great surfaces and well pitched imho. I seem to miss cross references to other answers on a regular basis and didn’t see 21 at the start of the Lalique lurker so thought it must be a weird and lit type with bottle doing a double shift… thanks Roly for allowing my eyebrows to relax.
Bravo Bjorn again.
12 minutes. Very good with plenty to raise a smile. I’m not qualified to comment as I’ve never done one, but the surface for 14a perfectly describes my reservations about doing a Mephisto. LOO was my other favourite.
A few CRYSTAL references: as well as LALIQUE there are also METH (as noted by Jack) and BALL in the corners, SET and maybe ZINC. Again, not really enough for a theme.
Thanks to Roly and Bjorn
Also NIGHT (Kristallnacht).
While solving, I wondered about Balalaika across the top and Kibbled Maize starting with 5d. Amazing what you can see. Rorschach would be very happy.
That’s nothing to being the Mephisto blogger – am I really expected to solve this thing? Then it all starts to flow.
Bucking the trend in finding this tougher than most, taking 14:11. Slow to see ESP = sixth sense (or to recognise ESPIAL as a word, though it clearly is), or realise that the Queen in QUIBBLED was not ER or CR or similar but QU – not sure I’ve seen that before so added to the list. And LANDING STRIP guessed – I had forgotten about Tiger Moths as small planes. But main hold-up was LOI MAZE, for which I had to resort to a letter trawl – and the combination -A-E must have about the largest number of possibilities of any 4 letter word!
Looking back when all done, I could appreciate the finer clues, and as others have said, there were some crackers. So a good stiff workout on a good puzzle!
Many thanks Roly for the blog
I appear to have found this a bit trickier than some of the early posters (and the Quitch rating) but very enjoyable nonetheless.
There were no major hold ups and my biggest issue was a self-inflicted wound as I initially put ‘hash’ in at 22a, which kind of works IMO, but made what should have been a straightforward MAZE impossible.
Both LALIQUE and ESPIAL were unknown but generously clued.
Started with LOO and finished with MAZE in 9.40.
Thanks to rolytoly and Bjorn
In my case, sadly not impossible if you then go on to think of a Ha-ha.
Yes!
I also toyed with ha-ha
10:38. With much time spent on LOI EVEN, where EDEN=calm was tempting.
Brilliant blog. Loved the quotes from the OED, whose entries still retain their Johnson-esque wit. Quibus quibus quibus was how Latin sounded to Molesworth, as any fule no.
Smythson diaries always contain entries for hunting seasons such as the GLORIOUS TWELFTH.
Surely QU is a manufactured abbreviation (don’t show me a list of abbreviations, find it in the wild). In what context is the U needed to clarify the Q? Since every Q has a U.
NHO ESPIAL. COD MAZE
I think Qatar and QANTAS would disagree with you. 😃
Yes but imported words such as Qoran and Iraq have no Us….
>>> Oops hadn’t noticed the Raffles post above.
Yes but its pretty hard to think of a scenario where Queen, Qantas and Qaran appear in the same context, and initials of QU and QA are needed to differentiate them.
Very true.
The anglicization most widely accepted of the Islamic scripture, superseding “Koran,” does contain a U: Quran.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/quran#google_vignette
Finally spotted that LALIQUE would fit and then typed LlaIQUE mucking up LANDING STRIP in the process. An enjoyable 18.49 until the disappointment of two pink squares.
Quit just after 20mins. Didn’t much enjoy as barely know BERGAMOT, NHO ESPIAL or LALIQUE. Quit because I’d put HASH (thinking got = has) making MAZE impossible.
Hands up for the HASH club! Yes MAZE was thus excluded, but biffed HAHA (corny, and it’s a DITCH, at least). All futile.
I had HASH but luckily saw POI METH and corrected it as my LOI. I thought it was excellent, and just snuck under 5 minutes – though the leaderboard and Quitch would indicate that it wasn’t quite as tricky as I thought. COD to the magnificent surface for RAILWAY ENGINE.
Just noted that the bottom line spells Crystal Meth – which of course is what it is often referred as. Although, I’m probably only about 12 hours behind everyone else on this “crystal theme” 😀
Exact time unclear as interruptions – however, not in SCC : )
Used, as we are, to not always parsing on entry, we biffed EXIT.. a combination of retreat=exit, Ex= former, Brexit= retreat etc… held us up until our sin was revealed.
NHO of ESPAIL – slow to get ESP (should not have been).
Didn’t pick ’21’ as referencing another clue – spent time with Roman numerals etc. Will know next time.
All in all, much enjoyed – and an offering of a quite a different flavour.
Thank you Bjorn and Rolytoly!
A great puzzle. I came in at 16:18 with 3 errors, very much SSC, but as Catherine Tate would say, I’m not even bovvered. Partly because the first half was an undercaffeinated blur, and partly because I really liked the puzzle.
NHO ESPIAL, and generally I do think such words might be slightly unfair in the QC. I’d like for the QC to be doable without obscure vocabulary, personally, and for it to be a test of ‘pure’ solving ability. But then I suppose the jump to the main cryptic in terms of vocabulary would be greater.
Had QUIBBLED as QUIFFLED.
Many potential CODs. I’ll give mine to 10ac because I love a clue that references crosswords themselves.
Super puzzle, with several clues making me smile, which is always a good thing. I struggled to parse LAY LOW so thanks for that, rolytoly, along with the rest of your excellent blog.
8:02, COD MAZE, thanks, Bjorn!
25:47. A delightful puzzle with 1a setting the standard for the rest of the clues.
Even the obscurer words such as ESPIAL were workoutable.
Knew the word LALIQUE from the 2 Michelin star restaurant at Glenturret but not the meaning.
Lovely blog too.
Quite tough, I thought. NHO ESPIAL, only saw LALIQUE late on and biffed LANDING STRIP, not seeing the Tiger Moth link. A slow 28:43.
Couldn’t do Bjorn’s last and this was worse. Biffed and guessed all over the place but the last two defied even that. NHO Amarula; googled it (it looks very sickly, even more so than Baileys) but that didn’t help; NHO LALIQUE either (and am about to google that). NHO Glorious Twelfth (not a huntin’ shootin’ fishin’ man) but had to be. Thank you, Roly, for your helping hand through this mire.
Humph: six wrong in the end. Did wonder if Queen was Q but rejected it ‘cos no explanation for the U. In what context is QU = queen, please? I suspect this is bogus. Ah – thank you, Merlin.
Liked INSIGNIFICANT, very clever anagram. Oh, NHO tears as anagram indicator (but had to be).
Loved it. Thanks Bjorn and to Rolytoly for explanations
I was really enjoying this 20min little tester from Bjorn, right up until the point I found I had a couple wrong. Hash for the drug seemed perfectly reasonable, and a Ha-ha ditch certainly confuses any sheep in the area. . . I’ll put it down as a draw.
CoD to Toughie for the smile as the answer appeared. Invariant
We were on for under 12 minutes at one point but then ended up staring a DNF in the face because Mrs T (evidently now not alone) quite reasonably IMO argued for (HAS)H leaving us staring at _A_A for 19d. It was only when I started considering the possibility of a long first A that the penny finally dropped. If it was deliberate ambiguity in 22a (our LOI in 13:37) then it was another very clever clue amongst many in this puzzle. ESPIAL didn’t occur readily either but the wordplay was unambiguous. Many thanks, Rolytoly and Bjorn.
Loved this one, right up my street. Seemed baffling at first but found my rhythm with bergamot and lair. NHO Lalique nor espial but the clues were clear enough. Also got caught up with hash rather than meth, but maze popped up for me fairly quickly and I knew that must be right.
19:10
I’m perfectly familiar with Amarula, if only from browsing the duty free offerings at Heathrow Airport. Lalique, less so, but once the checkers were in place the hidden was obvious. Breezed through most of this but got stuck for 4 mins on LOI ESPIAL.
4th sub 20 (my target) of the week. One more for the full set.
I agree with Rolytoly’s assessment of this puzzle, a really super puzzle from Bjorn. I came in under target at 9.18, but it really stretched me to do so. I’ve seen enough Antique Roadshows to have heard of LALIQUE, so no problems there. I hesitated over my LOI LAY DOWN, which came to mind quickly enough but needed a little while to parse. COD goes to LANDING STRIP which was top notch.
Apropos Glorious Twelfth. I doubt very much that, in Shakespeare’s time, this would have been known. I think the Twelfth Night is more likely to be the last night of the Christmas Calendar when the Wise Men were said to have appeared. Since this was the time for giving presents before it was moved bodily to Christmas Day
Undoubtedly so. As shown in the blog, TWELFTH is clued separately from NIGHT and they only come together in the grid to fit the definition ‘play’. Some of the traditions associated with Twelfth Night in the Christmas calendar involve role-reversal, dressing up and general disorder which may have some bearing on how the play came to be named. But also it’s believed to have had its first performance around that time of year if not on the actual date.
A fun puzzle which took me 15 minutes.
Last two were MAZE then METH.
I recognised lalique as a word, perhaps jewelry. NHO amarula.
None of that mattered.
A most enjoyable QC.
David
An excellent puzzle but not a doddle. I had to jump around the grid to make headway but found myself immersed to the point where I forgot about the time.
I join the HASH group, removing it only when MAZE was obvious.
I parsed them all and, on that basis, entered my LOI ESPIAL (nho) with fingers crossed.
Thanks to Bjorn for many excellent clues and Roly for his usual comprehensive blog.
I ruined my brain trying to find ‘maze’ after putting in Hash… got (has) +H.
Lovely puzzle. Ta!
In step with Plett as always: found it trickier than others, and had “hash” for far too long (I could see it didn’t quite work because “got” is not really a good fit for “has” but wedged it in there anyway). Got there in 10:33 for a Slow Day.
Superb puzzle, Bjorn is a top setter. Loved the CRYSTAL theme (only partly spotted). Nice to tackle the crossword in the morning after a coffee instead of at night after a 12 miles walk and a whisky – definitely improves concentration! (Currently in the last 100 miles of a year-long project walking from Lindisfarne to Iona; hitting Mull at the weekend.)
Many thanks B and Roly.
Your walking project has me swooning with envy.
. . .do you still have that book on the Jura mountains? Yes, I’ve got it.
I enjoyed it and finished in 15:42, which is about my average, but needed a lot more help from the blog than normal to parse. Plenty of unusual words, and as a less experienced solver I’m pretty confident that this is one of the occasions where the more experienced amongst you are dragging down the quitch more than usual.
Thank you for the very helpful blog!
Lovely puzzle, although I missed a couple of parsings. In fairness, I got all bar MAZE in about 6 minutes, then got distracted by work and looked back an hour or so later. Immediately saw MAZE (not sure why I didn’t immediately see it earlier) and totally forgot that I couldn’t explain LALIQUE (got the answer from the hidden before I knew that 21 was CRYSTAL) and LAY LOW. So thanks for the explanations on those two.
I disagree that this was a cracker QC for someone looking for a quick workout. Unkind clues like those for Railway Engine, Landing Strip , Twelfth Night , Espial and more did not make this an enjoyable one.
I made heavy weather of this and found it difficult, esp at the bottom. Some PD moments included ZINC when I looked up elements and, even more embarrassing, LAIR when I looked up PMs and MAZE when I looked up puzzles. Carelessly put Tourists so had to correct to solve CRYSTAL. LOI guessed ESPIAL. INSIGNIFICANT another PDM.
Liked RAILWAY ENGINE, LALIQUE, TOUGHIE, BERGAMOT, QUIBBLED and LANDING STRIP.
I did not see that 21 referred to as yet unsolved 21 across so was mystified until I saw the hidden LALIQUE.
Thanks for vital blog, Roly. I think experts will enjoy this more than the SCC.
13:10. Very nice and a bit tricky too. LOI MAZE which needed a lengthy alphabet trawl. Many thanks, Rolytoly and Bjorn
7.39 for second day running. Had never heard of LALIQUE but otherwise straightforward. LOI was BERGAMOT. Thanks Bjorn for enjoyable QC and Roly for an informative blog.
14 mins.
Quite tough.
My only question mark was lay low = fell.
Last 2 espial, quibbled, not Blackadder’s wibble.
COD wangled or loo.
I had the same quibble. I’ve just realised it’s not lay low as in hide, it’s lay somebody or something low.
(As the blog explains. D’oh!)
Great puzzle, I’m a hash man as well
16:03. QUIZZLED seemed possible but QUIBBLED eventually came to mind.
5:19
Yes, thoroughly enjoyable as many others have said – some great words used (WANGLED, LALIQUE, CRYSTAL, BERGAMOT, QUIBBLED, ESPIAL), and the quality of the clues would have been a delight to blog. Managed to narrowly avoid the TOURISTS/TOURISTY beartrap too. I seem to have been well on the wavelength today, so a big thumbs up from me.
Thanks for the great blog Roly, and to Bjorn for the super puzzle
Took me 45 minutes today, very enjoyable puzzle, with lots of interesting things learnt. Thought it might be LALIQUE when I only had the final E in the gird and from the clue involving “bottles”, but had to put the other checking letters in before I believed it was an actual word 😆 Thank you for the blog today
9.51 I found it hard to get started on this one but QUIBBLED led to LALIQUE, and it started to open up. The long ones were opaque but were very biffable from the checkers. Thanks rolytoly and Bjorn.
This was challenging for me, EVEN a TOUGHIE, and satisfying, yielding 18:09 of fun and games (a relief after being too tired to finish yesterday’s QC, I’m still gardening madly). I had to take the Rocket on trust (maybe a faint bell rang in the distance) after all the crossers were in, and then got a pink square for LANGING STRIP as I was typing in the wrong direction and didn’t see it. The perils of on-line solving. Could not see LAY LOW for “fell” so thanks for that roly. Also didn’t know about Moth aircraft.
TWELFTH NIGHT made my heart sing! Though the glorious date was completely unknown (looked up after, poor birds), the wild night and the literal were enough. TOUGHIE was also especially good, since I had a very sparse grid at that point in the solve.
With my mathematical hat on, I QUIBBLE with SET, as a set and a series are very different things. Stop confusing my students! (I know, it’s common usage that matters, but pedantry seems welcome to play here. Thanks.)
Thanks to Bjorn and roly. The wonderful phrase “obscure sense of phonetic symbolism” made my day.
The poor birds are delicious though. I am greatly looking forward to the 12th!
Bon appétit!
Thank you rolytoly and Bjorn.
Many slangy words that I suspected might not be in Cheating Machine – but they all were there.
3a NHO Lalique. Not in CM. What surprised me was that the third U in the containing text made it look as though it couldn’t contain a likely ending such as “que” – but it does. DOH! As it is the only pronounceable containment I didn’t need to cheat, but I did anyway by looking it up.
1d Bergamot. Earl Grey, oh that’s why I HHO this orange. Thanks rolytoly.
3d Lay Low. This looked wrong to me but isn’t. Thanks again to rolytoly.
4d Landing strip. The only Moth plane I know is the de Havilland Tiger Moth. I assume that is what was meant.
Difficult to think of a reasonable sentence to include ESPIAL. Was stuck by the SE corner as GOT is such a non specific word I did not get MET and corny is cheesy or foot related so missed out for maisy Maze.
A lovely puzzle which took me from BALL to ESPIAL in 6:34. I was glad LALIQUE was a hidden though! Liked LANDING STRIP and RAILWAY ENGINE. Thanks Bjorn and Roly.
Completed and all parsed except INSIGNIFICANT (biffed) in 17 minutes. NHO espial as a word but it certainly fitted the word play and the checkers so I didn’t hesitate too long. Luckily I never considered hash at 22ac. A MER at LAY LOW but Rolytoly’s excellent blog cleared that up.
FOI – 8ac RAILWAY ENGINE
LOI – 1ac BALL
COD – 9ac LOO
Thanks to Bjorn and Rolytoly.
Very enjoyable and educational as I’ve never heard of Lalique or espial which were my last ones in . Thanks to Bjorn and Roly
Fans of the Antiques Road Show will know about LALIQUE. I particularly remember the Scottish woman some time ago who bought a vase for £1 because she liked the wee plant in it. The vase eventually sold for about £K32.
Wow!