Tricky Friday from Breadman today. Some alphabet soup and a test of African geography (and other GK) give us some tricky words. We are an F and a W short of a pangram, but have a Breadman trademark symmetrical placing of the uncommon letters J, Q, X and Z, this time in the middle of the puzzle. Despite the unusual vocabulary, I was all but finished in 6 minutes but got stuck on 18A having never seen that spelling. Thank-you Breadman. How did you all get on? I’m not expecting any PBs today!
Fortnightly Weekend Quick Cryptic. This time it is my turn to provide the extra weekend entertainment. You can find the crossword here. If you are interested in trying our previous offerings you can find an index to all 136 here.
Definitions underlined in bold italics, (Abc)* indicating anagram of Abc, {deletions} and [] other indicators.
| Across | |
| 1 | Peak amount of weight besetting one chap with tankard maybe (11) |
| KILIMANJARO – I (one) MAN (chap) JAR, (tankard perhaps) all in KILO (amount of weight). One for experts at IKEA furniture assembly. | |
| 8 | One who condemns beer drunk around our country run (7) |
| REBUKER – UK (our country) in (beer)* [drunk], R (run). | |
| 9 | Enticement to obtain constant riches (5) |
| LUCRE – C (constant) in LURE (enticement). | |
| 10 | That woman records family’s type of rug (9) |
| SHEEPSKIN – SHE (that woman) EPS (extended Plays; records) KIN (family). | |
| 12 | Some ibuprofen knocked back — after boozing here? (3) |
| PUB – Reverse hidden in iBUProfen. Lovely surface. My COD. | |
| 13 | Companion welcome to join unknown South American revolutionary (6) |
| CHAVEZ – CH (Companion of Honour) AVE (welcome) Z (variable in algebraic equations; unknown). The Venezuelan politician, revolutionary, and military officer. Read about him here. | |
| 15 | German agreed with second agent about gemstone (6) |
| JASPER – JA (yes in German) S (second) REP (agent) reversed, [about], -> PER. | |
| 17 | Seaman’s thick black coat (3) |
| TAR – Double definition, the second a cryptic hint to Tarring and Feathering. | |
| 18 | African pickle engrossing European person (9) |
| SOUDANESE – DANE (European person) in SOUSE (pickle). I’d never seen this spelt with an O before the U. | |
| 20 | Unfit, sleep briefly surrounded by relations (5) |
| INAPT – NAP (sleep briefly) in IT (sexual relations). | |
| 22 | Doctor angered very important person (7) |
| GRANDEE – [Doctor] (angered)*. | |
| 23 | Part of body dance showing more happiness to Spooner (11) |
| GALLBLADDER – Spoonerism of BALL (dance) GLADDER (showing more happiness). | |
| Down | |
| 1 | Oxford college mostly keen to embrace British Library (5) |
| KEBLE – BL (British Library) in KEE{n} [mostly]. | |
| 2 | Student revised Keats and Poe — part of English Literature syllabus? (4,5) |
| LAKE POETS – L (learner; student) (Keats Poe)* [revised]. Another great surface. | |
| 3 | Top cyclist Rick dismissing current in Mexico (6) |
| MERCKX – R{i}CK without the I (current in electrical equations) in MEX (Mexico). Eddy Merckx, the famous Belgian cyclist. | |
| 4 | Love characters regularly seen in Enfield (3) |
| NIL – Alternate letters [regularly seen] in eNfIeLd. | |
| 5 | Strong drink curtailed all detective work (7) |
| ALCOPOP – AL{l} [curtailed] COP (detective) OP (opus; work). Strong in the sense that it has alcohol added to the pop. | |
| 6 | Six deliveries, arranged under bed, taxed excessively (12) |
| OVERBURDENED – OVER (six deliveries) [arranged] (under bed)*. Neat wordplay but as to what the surface reading means, I have no idea! | |
| 7 | Iron withering piece of paper? (5,7) |
| PRESS CUTTING – PRESS (iron) CUTTING (withering). | |
| 11 | Perhaps Titchmarsh in unusually sandy country once (9) |
| NYASALAND – ALAN (perhaps Titchmarsh, the avuncular TV gardener) in [unusually] (sandy)*. Nyasaland became Malawi in 1964. I suspect a lot of our overseas solvers will have never heard of the gardener. | |
| 14 | Heard inheritor, Irishman, returning long-distance communication (7) |
| AIRMAIL – AIR sounds like HEIR (inheritor), LIAM (Irishman) [returning] -> MAIL. | |
| 16 | Question and answer primarily giving good advice for extinct creature (6) |
| QUAGGA – QU (question) A (answer) and initial letters [primarily] of Giving Good Advice. Quagga is an extinct sub-species of zebra. | |
| 19 | Duck and fish in centre of mere (5) |
| EIDER – IDE (fish) in [centre of] {m}ER{e}. | |
| 21 | Group of workers book unwieldy boat (3) |
| TUB – TU (Trade Union; group of workers) B (book). | |
I had to check the Quick Snitch to convince myself I wasn’t brain dead. I have fond memories of completing a Breadman puzzle in 13 mins once but the rest have been SCC, DNF, and 🌋🤬😵💫.
Here was the promised stinker after a run of actual QCs recently which some of us have enjoyed. There is no doubt that Breadman is imaginative, off-track, occasionally impressive, and often rather sadistic for us mere mortals but I wish he could be confined to the 15×15 where he belongs.
I persevered on principle and finished (in 40+ mins and with a couple of definitions and spellings checked). There were some pleasurable PDMs for me but they were outweighed by the difficult/off-beat/sneaky clues listed by bloggers above. SoUDANESE – really!?! I mistook QUAGGA for a QUOKKA at first but they are far from extinct. No, I will bring my potential rant to an end.
A remarkable puzzle but completely out of place. Where is the Crossword Editor when he is needed? Having a laugh with the whizz kids above, most of whom really can’t see any problem? Thankfully, not all of our esteemed quicker solvers were bending over to justify this as an acceptable ‘QC’.
Thanks to John for a great blog (and a magical time). I will now go over his blog more carefully (and I will read all the comments above with the care they deserve). Thanks all.
Aha … Quokka that is the little creature I mistook it for. Remember seeing those on Rottnest Island back in 1996 – was sure they wouldn’t have been allowed to go extinct since then.
I would argue that this was outside the remit for a QC but I did learn some new words. I confess to checking their existence during the solve. The words I looked up today were CHAVEZ, KEBLE, NYASALAND and QUAGGA. You would have thought from my avatar that I solved MERCKX quickly but I didn’t and spelling has never been my forte. LOI SOUDANESE in 13:03.
30:13
I thought I might escape the SCC with just a few to go at 18 mins but ground to a halt with CHAVEZ, assumed my revolutionary would be Che. Failed to parse INAPT and took an age to unravel GALLBLADDER. But it was LOI SOUDANESE that really ran the clock down, even with all the checkers. That extra O just didn’t look right.
DNF. Gave up after an hour with a dozen clues solved. Far too hard for an average solver like myself. Too many obscure clues and difficult parsing. Soudanese ?
Never heard of it. I could not find it in any dictionaries.
Quagga ? Really ? Does the setter really have to resort to such obscurities to defeat the solver ?
I understand that these Quick Cryptics should be tough but doable by non-experts. If so, then lately the setters have been failing on their brief. I do not expect to
succeed on every QC , but at least to have a fair chance.
Slow – I almost completed it but just could not get SOUDANESE. Sudanese seemed to fit the wordplay but that extra letter screwed with my head.
NHO LAKE POETS or CHAVEZ, but they seemed to fit.
Separately, I thought we had done away with random names in the wordplay, so I was surprised to see LIAM popping his head above the parapet.
Pi ❤️
Good point about the random names in clues although I wonder if Liam=Irishman is considered non-random in the same way that Scots clue Ian or Mac, the Welsh are Dai, Evans, Sian etc.
I did mention on Wednesdays post that we’d had a very tame start to the week, and that I expected we would get something tricky to finish the week. Well The Breadman seems to excelled himself here with this absolute beauty! I was sailing along quite nicely probably a minute or so under target with three to solve, and then I hit the wall. The first to fall was QUAGGA when I finally got to grips with the cryptic direction, giving the extra U then allowed me to put in 18ac, but unfortunately it went in as SAUDANESE, I can only think because I had Saudi erroneously in mind. My final one to solve was MERCKX, which frankly I don’t think I would have solved without knowing of the great Eddy Merckx. Further examination of the blog tells me I made a second mistake in misspelling KILIMANJARO as KILOMANJARO. This was pure carelessness for not taking the trouble to parse it properly. I hesitated at the spelling of KEBLE which I wrongly thought had an additional E in it.
My total time for the week is 48.56, giving me a daily average just under target at 9.47. I’ll take that considering todays time was so poor.
DNF today like a few others, beaten by SOUDANESE and EIDER (NHO the fish, was assuming a specific mere). A multitude of NHOs as well, though always happy to learn about poet groups, cyclists, former countries and extinct animals, even if they are mostly, as vinyl1 said at the top, largely fitted in from the wordplay. Thanks Breadman and John!
IDE is worth remembering as it comes up often being such a useful 3-letter word for charade-type clues (or insertions, such as here).
DNF on Soudanese, and also had to check that the scarcely believable Quagga was a real thing. Not much else to add to other comments. Invariant
I reached my cut-off time of 30 minutes with 18ac still outstanding. I thought of Sudanese which half parsed but was too short. I also failed to think of souse for pickle – thought of sauce but that didn’t lead anywhere. Everything else completed in around 25 minutes but several not parsed.
FOI – 10ac SHEEPSKIN
LOI – DNF but would have been 18ac SOUDANESE
COD – 1ac KILIMANJARO
Thanks to Breadman and John.
Well I guess we were due a tough one after the rest of the week was pretty easy (for someone who often can’t finish these). I had several unanswered here.
Press cutting – I mean I kind of get it, I just don’t think it’s very clever or guessable.
Inapt – I actually considered this, but wasn’t sure it was a word (thinking inept), and didn’t know the crosswordese that it = relations.
Tub – Guessed how this would work, but there are so many three letter words that sound like they could be small boats, didn’t know group of workers = tu, will try to remember.
Soudanese – Annoyingly I thought of this early on, but saw that it didn’t fit. Have never seen this spelling with the o before, and when typing it into google it asks if you meant Sudanese!! Would rather these sort of archaic misspellings were not included. Even if I hadn’t immediately dismissed this possibility I wouldn’t have got it anyway because I’ve never heard of souse either.
Keble and quagga were basically guesses as well, Keble based entirely on word play, never heard of it, quagga rang a very faint bell. Merckx and alcopop eventually went in with all checking letters, seen Merckx before but not a cycling fan so not thinking of it, alcohol clues are always a disaster for me. Oh and I also spelled it Kilamanjaro for an extra fail. Could’ve been an a or I based on wordplay.
Popped in to check on the whinging of the pearl clutchers, was not disappointed, though great to see that not all comments fall into that category.
Great puzzle to test the thinking skills and remind folk that these puzzles can (should?) be puzzling. Bravo Breaders, and to the editor for occasionally ignoring the self-appointed gatekeepers of what is and is not a quick cryptic.
I’m a former “pearl clutcher”, but now I just tend to go with the flow and raise an eyebrow here and there. However, I believe it’s better to have the conversation and allow all opinions to be heard than to flounce out of the discussion altogether. No? Personally, I enjoy the banter.
Hello Former Pearl Clutcher, congrats on the phlegmatism!
I agree. it’s good to read the whole range of opinions.
Hm, kind of provocative – pearl-clutchers usually refer to older women, but I don’t think the few women here do complain or ‘whinge’.
I reckon I would be a much better crossword solver if I had started when young. But I enjoy it, and this blog very much too, despite the occasional MER.
I’ve never spent so much time on Google checking possible answers as today!! Way too difficult for the likes of me but I did do all bar two which included Soudanese which I had put in then checked then deleted as it was not spelt like that!! Couldn’t get Chavez but should have – was trying to fit Che in with an X. At least I’ve learnt some new words relating to Africa today. Thank you Breadman and John.
My first day back from holiday and greeted with this. Gave up after 2 hours with 5 still undone. Can’t really agree with the “occasional stinker” theory, if you want 15×15 difficulty then go and do it. Its like black slope skiers saying a black slope should be occasionally marked green just so they can laugh at the suckers falling over.
Not much pleasure from the ones I did get, sometimes you get a difficult clue and think “wow! that’s clever”, sometimes, like today, you just think “oh – is that it, ho hum”.
However you can never please all of the people all of the time so thanks to both.
9:58
Thoroughly enjoyed this GK-fest – I had all of the knowledge but not necessarily all of the spellings. The wordplay was vital in building MERCKX, CHAVEZ, QUAGGA (remembered from these parts), KILIMANJARO (A or I?) and especially SOUDANESE, which despite being the obvious answer, was the only answer that grated a little, due to its unusual spelling.
Hat tip to the Breadman and thanks to John for the blog
All but SOUDANESE in a reasonable time of a bit over 20 minutes, but there was no way I was going to get that last one, so gave up after another 15 minutes or so. I thought of Sudanese, but there was that extra letter that made it impossible. I eventually went for SEUMANESE hoping there was an unknown tribe and a pickle called ‘sese’. Wasn’t far off. Not a clue that deserves to be anywhere near a QC, or even the average 15×15 in my opinion. Thanks for the rest though Breadman, and John of course.
DNF after 20 minutes. I could see that SUDANESE nearly fitted but I’d never seen SOUDANESE and I failed to figure it out. No problem with the rest and no complaints about the difficulty. Thanks John and Breadman.
I haven’t read all of the comments yet. I did find it hard to get going. After 75 minutes I had 19. Just missing the very hard ones, 11d, 16d, 18ac and 13ac. I was thinking Che Guevara so I had the C H….
I had press from iron (as in ironing) but it was the assumed C from Che that made me twig / bifd cutting as I had the T from tar.
I should have solved 22ac. I was looking for Dr plus something, enraged possibly which is another anagrist of course….
Six months ago I would have stopped at four solved. I hope that encourages my fellow newbies.
Thanks to Breadman and John
If I have to look up a spelling on Google I consider this a cheat. Given my difficulty with spelling I put single letters (that are not crossers) in on the app then check them. I consider this fair play for me but I wouldn’t submit a completed puzzle (when I get there) if I had used this technique.
Even with me being an ex cyclist and still a fan I had to Google the spelling of Merckx (!)
DNF with SOUDANESE, ALCOPOP and MERCKX stumping me. Loved having to stretch my brain for the clues, and enjoyed learning about lots of different topics from it. Favourite clue has to be GALLBLADDER. Thank you for the blog 😄
Someone queried souse.
Soused herring, Scandinavian probably Norwegian featuring on a smorgasbord. Can’t stand anything remotely connected with vinegar myself.
How many herring in 100 – answer 110
How many herring in a long hundred – answer 120.
I leant that in a greasy spoon on The Strand in Deal.
Horrible puzzle with very little to like. My LOI took around a third of my total time since I didn’t know how to spell it, and suspect the inability to parse it more quickly was due to my brain overheating on earlier clues.
FOI LUCRE
LOI MERCKX
COD GALL BLADDER
TIME 5:37
If you’re out and about anywhere near Reigate, Surrey today and hear a long high pitched continuous scrrream …. that was me! What the hell was that …? Tortuous and now I know the answers – impossible!!!
I’m going to go against the grain here and say that we really enjoyed this apart from the sting in the tail with the NHO and LOI SUDANESE after 16:56. We had all the other GK – which helps of course. We do follow cycling so MERCKX was easy but I do feel that he is so famous that it’s like never having heard of Pele. The NHO held us up by taking a long time to see SOUSE for pickle. We know the word though: I guess if you don’t then it becomes very difficult indeed. I did wonder (though I can find no supporting evidence!) whether it might be a neologism for someone from South Sudan. For once I found the Spoonerism to be quite approachable and that might well be my COD. Thanks, John and Breadman.
I’m pretty sure it’s not a neologism, the reverse if anything. “Soudan” is the French spelling – phonetically it’s the same as English “Sudan”.
Incidentally, this difference in the phonetics of French and English means that we often render Russian names differently. Trump’s bosom pal Vladimir is “Poutine” in France; our spelling “Putin” must raise a smile the other side of the channel. It’s also the reason that we spell Tchaicovsky with a, for us, totally redundant ‘T’.
Nho QUAGGA ( although autospell does), nor spelling of SOUDANESE
DNF Would have been 17:00 minutes or so but entered CHAVER( companion in Hebrew) instead of CHAVEZ. I knew of Hugo and Cesar but neither jumped out at me as a revolutionary. I lived near SOUDAN Avenue in Toronto years ago and that helped me consider that SOUDANESE could work.
Got there eventually, but this was a bit trickier than the average QC.
Little used alternative spellings seem to on the increase lately in the QC and 15×15 (we had ‘FILAGREE’ a couple of days ago). I guess sometimes they might be slightly forced on the setter by checkers and/or lay-out, but they are a bit irksome – whoever spells “Sudanese with an ‘O'”? – maybe somebody once 150 years ago, which is enough to get it into some dictionaries, but hardly makes it part of the language.
And, while I’m having a whinge, GALL BLADDER has to be one of the clunkiest spoonerism clues I have seen.
Those moans aside, it was an enjoyable and largely fair challenge.
I seem to be contrarian today being almost alone in struggling with the 15×15 but whizzing through this in 11 mins or so. Geography via philately helped but it was less biffable than usual.
Fun blog as usual, thanks.
SCC+8:30… a tad esoteric for a QC methinks. Not gonna draw in the crowds anytime soon. Did I know Chavez (not Chavvy) Nyaslander (not Nyetimber) Merckz (Eddie?) Quagga (Dodo?) and could I be less bothered by Baliol sorry Keeble or Clare (or is it Claire? who cares and I’m probably mixing my varsities)
Sorry not my bag (Bread)man.
Nice blog John
It seems a pity to go to all the trouble of including crazy words like Merckx and quagga and then not bother to fit in F and W to complete a pangram!
But the “almost pangram” is Breadman’s signature trick – almost as if he he likes to make one think it will be a pangram and then go hunting for the missing letter. Or two letters in this case.
I think there is a word for a puzzle that has all the letters bar one, but I don’t think there’s one for one which has all of them bar two.
That will be a LIPOGRAM, as famously expounded by our late editor, setting as “Noel” (geddit?) in QC357. See the blog here.
DNF: I gave up after 45 minutes, beaten by two of four NHOs: SOUDANESE and QUAGGA. The two I did get were LAKE POETS and NYASALAND, although both were entered as guesses. So, all four NHOs intersected – a little unfair for a QC, IMO.
My (ultimately) futile struggles in the later stages of this puzzle left a sour taste, I’m afraid, and no desire to select a COD. Maybe I will return later with a more benevolent mindset …. or maybe I won’t. Sorry, Breadman!
Many thanks to John for the blog.