New setter today, and a fine maiden outing.
Lots to like in this well-pitched debut from Jet Lag. It might be bolstered by seeing a new name atop the puzzle, but it had a breezy fresh feel to it, and I enjoyed the slightly different slant on some familiar clue types. Very light on anagrams (a mere two, right down at the bottom of the downs), and some lovely surfaces kept things entertaining (my favourite being the mysterious 12ac).
Around average difficulty with a couple of spicier things thrown in: I clocked in at 7:48, a touch quicker than the last couple of days.
Much enjoyed – many thanks to Jet Lag!
| Across | |
| 1 | Start to generate a little illumination (8) |
| GASLIGHT – G (“start” to Generate), A, SLIGHT (little) | |
| 5 | Just beautiful (4) |
| FAIR – double definition | |
| 8 | It’s unimportant what characterises a vacuum (2,6) |
| NO MATTER – double definition | |
| 9 | Initially, Forster may cut novel (4) |
| EMMA – E.M. are the initials of Forster, MA |
|
| 11 | Meagre score in skittles (5) |
| SPARE – double definition | |
| 12 | In the morning, catching companion opening letters? (7) |
| ACRONYM – AM (in the morning) catching CRONY (companion) | |
| 13 | A puzzle mostly concerning part of South America (6) |
| AMAZON – A, MAZ |
|
| 15 | Pack animal roughly east of mountain area (6) |
| ALPACA – CA. (roughly) east of ALP (mountain) A (area) | |
| 18 | Constantly established high point (7) |
| EVEREST – EVER (constantly) EST. | |
| 19 | Cast finished broadcast (5) |
| THREW – when spoken, or broadcast, sounds the same as THROUGH (finished). LOI, as I dithered over an unparsable THROW. | |
| 21 | Existential statement has at first mystified prayer leader (4) |
| IMAM – I AM (existential statement) has/eats M (“at first” Mystified) | |
| 22 | Pirate finished after char (3,5) |
| SEA ROVER – OVER (finished) after SEAR (char) | |
| 23 | Three attempt taking ecstasy (4) |
| TREY – TRY (attempt) taking E. The three in cards – and dice, according to Chambers, indeed “anything with a value of three.” | |
| 24 | Range of capabilities initially seen in piece of cookware (5,3) |
| SKILL SET – S (“initially” Seen) in SKILLET (piece of cookware) | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Feeling angst about embracing hardcore rapper (7) |
| GANGSTA – is “embraced” by feelinG ANGST About | |
| 2 | Samuel and couple from Bath dance (5) |
| SAMBA -SAM and BA (“couple” from BA |
|
| 3 | Content to join them, one year, enjoying wealth (2,3,5) |
| IN THE MONEY – the “content” to joIN THEM ONE Year | |
| 4 | African scavengers laugh about hunger strike primarily (6) |
| HYENAS – HA (laugh) about YEN (hunger) and S (“strike” primarily) | |
| 6 | Country song engages roughly half the population (7) |
| ARMENIA – ARIA (song) engages MEN (roughly half the population) | |
| 7 | Actual beginning of Mongol Empire (5) |
| REALM – REAL (actual) M (“beginning” of Mongol) | |
| 10 | Subsequently going through ordeal with three participants (10) |
| TRILATERAL – LATER (subsequently) going through TRIAL (ordeal) | |
| 14 | Okay, state how old you are (7) |
| AVERAGE – to AVER AGE would be to state how old you are. | |
| 16 | Two-star novel — no less than that (2,5) |
| AT WORST – anagram (novel) of TWO STAR | |
| 17 | Run of luck confused skater (6) |
| STREAK – anagram (confused) of SKATER | |
| 18 | Rising trend to accept Conservative decree (5) |
| EDICT – TIDE (trend) “rising”, accepts C(onservative) | |
| 20 | Wanders through woods without leader (5) |
| ROVES – gROVES (woods) without “leader” | |
I found this a bit harder than usual but with a real mix of clues, quite a few trivial ones combined with some real stumpers, for a time a few minutes slower than average. I NHO SEA ROVER or E.M. FORSTER but the answers had to be correct.
COD 6d. An interesting debut puzzle, I’ll be interested to see Jet Lag’s next offering. Thanks Roly.
Now that my queries have been answered by Roly (like, GANGSTA and IN THE MONEY were both hiddens, who knew?) I would call this a rather immaculate debut by JL. It took me 12.10, meaning I had to think hard about a few. DNK the skittle score, so SPARE and GANSTA followed AMAZON as LOsI. I thought EMMA, ACRONYM and AMAZON were very clever clues. Little old ARMENIA sure punches above its weight when it comes to cryptic crossword inclusion.
15 minutes. Always good to tackle a puzzle from a new setter. I had a brain meltdown in the NW corner, only spotting the two (very good) hiddens towards the end and needing a half-hearted alphabet trawl for SPARE, my LOI. I didn’t know TREY but it seemed a good bet from the wordplay. Probably just me, but a bit of a pity about the SEA ROVER / GROVES intersecting answers in the SE.
Plenty of good ones though, with ACRONYM and the S. American nano-themed AMAZON and ALPACA my favourites.
Thanks to Roly and thanks and welcome to Jet Lag
SEA ROVER / ROVES: not just you. why not RAVES?
18 minutes day after 19 minutes yesterday hardly feels like an improvement!
The LH was straightforward enough apart from needing extra time to parse HYENAS and confirm it was okay to write it in, as I had no checkers at that stage. RH I entered a couple of obvious answers (FAIR and THREW, for example) but struggled with more such as SEA ROVER (not sure I even knew that as a pirate), the novel (despite knowing EM Forster very well) and ACRONYM which was my LOI.
Thanks to the new setter – a lot to enjoy for sure! However not wishing to be unkind I can’t agree that the pitch was right. Far too tricky for a quickie as is evidenced by the slow times of experienced players.
I disagree – any solver faced for the first time by a puzzle from a new setter will slow down on their average. I sneaked inside 5 minutes, and thought it was nicely pitched with a couple of neat tricks.
Let’s agree to disagree – sometimes it s a wavelength thing. Obviously you were in tune – I don’t think many were but heh
I would suggest that it’s a two-way street. We solvers may need to get used to new setters and they may need to adjust to our capabilities (or lack of). I enjoyed Jet Lag’s clueing, but let’s hope he/she eases up slightly.
What if the solver has no idea who the setter is?
Might I suggest that the experienced solvers would have more to pause over than novices would?
Thanks for the blog. I didn’t spot either of the hiddens. COD was acronym
7.52
It does seem like the times are slow (and I was above my average time) but looking back over them there are a decent number of gettable clues – albeit with some trickier ones, so I’d give Jet Lag the thumbs up.
I had SEA LOVER which sort of works if you close both eyes and ignore the w/p and definition. But TRILATERAL thankfully put paid to that.
Liked AT WORST but COD to SAMBA
What an bewildered old man I’ve become, spotted the answer would fit and then couldn’t work out where the ER came from. Finally parsed more carefully to see GANGSTA. IN THE MONEY wouldn’t parse because the words weren’t hinting at the answer they were the answer – Jet Lag got me good twice! Only two on the first pass of acrosses, a few more downs to get me going. It was hard graft at first but enjoyment grew with each clue solved. All green in 22.57 – the last five or so a real pleasure!
I found this tricky in places but really enjoyed the challenge despite a DPS for THRoW, a clue I meant to go back to to but forgot. A couple of unknowns but they were clued fairly so didn’t cause too much delay.
CsOD to the two hiddens in the NW which I thought were excellent with an honourable mention to SEA ROVER.
Thanks to rolytoly for the blog and Jet Lag for his entertaining debut.
Approximately 10.00.
A fine debut! 16:46 for the solve so Jet Lag continues the trend that the first puzzle from a new setter is often a tough one. I struggled with several of the clues, missing most of the hiddens and biffing hard, needing Roly’s helpful blog for the parsing. Perhaps one puts it down to an unsurprising unfamiliarity with Jet Lag’s style. TREY was a NHO but had to be, and SEA ROVER an unfamiliar term.
Many thanks Roly for the blog, much needed in places.
Often a tough one, or just that we’re not yet used to their style?
Exactly Jack – see my response to gcook52 earlier in the responses.
I enjoyed this, although it took longer than usual at 19 mins. I was sort of aware it felt slightly different, but did not put that down to a new setter. I don’t feel that the setter’s name alters how I attempt to solve a puzzle. Does it really help others? Some setters have a reputation, reading the comments here sometimes, of being harder than others, but it would be interesting if there are tips as to how to address a specific setter’s clues. Doesn’t apply to the 15×15 of course as the setter is unknown.
I echo the above – high quality, entertaining, two brilliant hiddens, tough in places. My sticking points were AVERAGE, AMAZON and ALPACA, all of which required hand to hand combat. Also needed two looks at EMMA, and just restrained myself from “throw” (thinking it didn’t really work and then realising why not!).
All done in 08:11 for a Decent Day. Many thanks Jet Lag and Roly.
Once I got going, I enjoyed this. I learned that you can have a SPARE in skittles – not just in 10 pin bowling – and had to really engage my thought processes. I suspect a few will fall into the “throw” bearpit.
FOI FAIR
LOI ALPACA
COD ACRONYM
TIME 4:59
17:57 for the solve. My grid was very empty for the first 7-8 mins and it was only when answers began to go in and I had more checkers to work with that I could bif answers. For me, that was the fundamental problem here – I was more often than not backparsing rather than building answers – which I don’t enjoy if it’s too prevalent. NHO TREY so I had to build that one! LOI ALPACA where I was trying to do something with a llama – ooer missus.
It felt deliberately obscure in places – for example, the hidden word indicators in 1 & 3 weren’t obvious, few people play skittles but many will know a spare from tenpin bowling. I hope with a bit of tweaking, JL will be a good addition to the QC rota.
Thanks to Roly and welcome to Jet Lag.
16 after a slow start with the acrosses but saw in the money instantly then G for the first letter of 1ac (start to Generate) which instantly pointed at gangsta. Then samba which gave gas for gaslight. An alternative truth possibly?
CoD acronym because I got it 🙂
Thanks Roly and JetLag
Signed in now…
Bunging in Red Beard at 22a caused no end of problems.
I was parsing char as tea….I bifd sea.
Aver is an addiction to my vocabulary. I don’t think I’d even heard a lawyer utter that. What’s the past tense of aver? Averted? I think not.
Aver – to state firmly and positively (Chambers). Past tense Averred
Thank you. Is it something I would have known had I been taught Latin?
Quite possibly.
It’s more likely to be read rather than said these days.
I was, and I did.
“…. for all averred I had killed the bird that caused the breeze to blow.”
Coleridge : The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Started slowly but gradually saw the light with a couple of biffs (GANGSTA – didn’t see it was hidden until afterwards – SEA ROVER and AMAZON). 21:08 to finish.
11:08
LOI ROVES
Held up on 15a, when llama would not quite fit, thinking about Ogden Nash’s “three-alarmer”.
Thanks Roly and JetLag
Most went in well and I enjoyed this puzzle until I hit the wall with SEA ROVER and DNF. Some clever clues.
Thanks and a welcome to Jet lag and thanks to Roly for the blog.
Loved this, all solved and all but 1 parsed in 17:13 Thanks Jet Lag and Roly
Can someone please explain CA = roughly?!
Latin circa for about. Also abbreviated to C sometimes.
Some dnk like trey and sea rover unfamiliar. The laugh in hyena clue helped me as would have struggled getting from the second part of clue.
Stretched to just over my target by this fine puzzle from our newest setter, to whom welcome. Completely missed the hiddens, GANGSTA and IN THE MONEY, so they added time while I failed to parse them. SAMBA was FOI. ACRONYM and AMAZON took some intense cogitation. TREY was unknown. STREAK was LOI. 10:26. Thanks Jet Lag and Roly.
Fairly average 36 minutes for me, having to biff ALPACA (not sure I’ll ever remember CA/roughly, however many times I see it), and couldn’t parse SEA ROVER or HYENAS, not knowing ‘yen’ as hunger. LOI was AMAZON, though realising that ‘concerning’ was part of the wordplay would really have helped with that one.
COD GANGSTA, if only because it makes me think that one day clues referencing Snoop Dogg and Lil Wayne will be just as common as ones referencing E. M. Forster and Jane Austen. I can dream, maybe?
Nightmare!
Got there eventually (about an hour and a half) but did not enjoy it. LOI EMMA, had so many tries at the country, Austria, Albania, even America, before finally PDM and EM Forster could at last go in. Several other CNPs (YEN = hunger?!) were guessed, so thank you, Roly.
Missed both the very clever hiddens. Talking of clever, ACRONYM, ALPACA and TRILATERAL would all be deserving of COD. Just all hard! Had all the LH half done before any of the RH half.
NHO the score in skittles (nor ten-pin bowling, all not in my world which is more EMMA and EM Forster than any sport); may we know how this works, please?
In the original skittles game (ancient) you have 3 balls to try to knock down as many as possible. If you knock them all down with two balls they are put back up and you can score more points with the third ball which is “spare”.
The term has passed over to 10 pin bowling where you have two balls, if you knock down 9 pins with them then you have missed one which is going “spare” when you have finished.
Thank you! That’s curious; so in the original game, you’ve done very well if you have the “spare” – but in 10-pin bowling it’s the opposite, the “spare” is the one you missed. Couldn’t have guessed any of that – does it really rate as GK?!
I agree re GK. You would have to play the game to know the terminology.
That’s not right. A spare in 10-pin bowling is knocking down all ten pins with 2 balls, compared to a strike which is knocking them all down with just one.
You are correct of course. Brains must have got garbled in the 30 years or so since I played.
DNF.
Absolutely flew through the LHS, as fast as I can type. But slowed and then ground to a halt in NE corner with ARMENIA/EMMA/ACRONYM.
I tried both America and Austria (surely there wasn’t a third seven letter country starting and ending in A?). Couldn’t remember Forsters initials, and felt it must just be F, so thought of famous novels Flea and Feta.
Is SEA ROVER a real word? Never heard of it.
Don’t forget Albania and Algeria!
Or indeed, Andorra. ARMENIA was the last one I tried.
There is the Wild Rover pirate folk song ‘No, no, never no more’.
You may well be right, and I know ‘rover’ can mean pirate or pirate’s ship but I’ve never associated that song with pirates and always assumed the Wild Rover was just a young man who travelled the world leading a wild life boozing, gambling and the other.
To answer Merlin’s question SEA ROVER is in Collins on-line as ‘American’ but also in Chambers who don’t qualify it as such. I don’t recall meeting it before.
Too difficult for me, gave up with only about a third done. None excessive on their own but plenty that were quite difficult without any crossers.
Thanks to both.
And me – I can’t help thinking that sone setters (and crossword Editor) think the QC is there as a little speed test competition for experienced / better solvers. Perhaps it is, but my preference is for a much friendlier grid.
First of all, a warm welcome to Jet Lag – I’ll keep a (red) eye out for your next appearance.
As to the puzzle, I’m just glad it was a crossword, as I certainly needed lots of help from the crossers today. Having completely missed both hiddens, the grid was very sparsely populated after the first pass, but I gradually tuned into JL and was up to something like my normal (slow) speed before ending with . . .Gangsta 🙄, with the 30min post looming. CoD to Acronym for the eventual pdm. Invariant
DNF. Some bad guesses and some careless mistakes like not noticing I did not have enough room for Gangster, making 13 Reason, oh dear.
Was pleased to finally solve EMMA. (Have just been rereading A Passage to India). ACRONYM clever.
Biffed NHO TREY..
Might have got TRILATERAL, but 19a wrong.
Sorry, did not enjoy but thanks, Roly.
Welcome Jet Lag although you got the better of me today. I thought the hiddens were expertly hidden. GANGSTA was my penultimate solve having previously biffed IN THE MONEY not realising it was a hidden. It took me a while to parse HYENA and there were two unknowns …TREY (constructed from wordplay) and my LOI SPARE which was a guess. COD to ARMENIA (I had Austria initially) 9:54 Thanks Roly